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an interesting thought...... (pg. 2)
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| butterfly |
| i don thtink we are perfectly in sync either... i mean, if you assume you are at the middle of the earth where you get 12 hours of light a day... i mean i rarely stick to a 12 hr sleep rotation. _9 or 10 usually, but that stays the same all year regarldess of the length of the days) |
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| Orbax |
Sleep is weirder than hell. It paralyzes you. I forgot which part of the brain does it but it stops signals from reaching the spinal cord. Thats why dogs and stuff twitch in sleep. If they didnt have that part theyd be running around lol.
They still dont quite understand it all. Using shock and stuff theyve kept animals awake for long times. They eat normally, urinate, defecate, everything. But eventually they start losing weight and then just die. Perfectly healthy, and they drop dead.
Also our circadian rhythms (circa dia= around/about a day) change. Normally its based off the 24 hour day, but when people are deprived of time deviced and sunlight (eg, caves and what not) they go onto a 25 hour rhythm.
Stuff is awesome. |
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| jessicah |
| quote: | Originally posted by Orbax
Sleep is weirder than hell. It paralyzes you. I forgot which part of the brain does it but it stops signals from reaching the spinal cord. |
You're only "paralyzed" during REM sleep. During all the other sleep cycles, you move around quite a bit. :) |
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| Orbax |
good call. I was referring to dreams making you move lol, only in REM :D
thats also why if you set your alarm for 15 mins before you normally wake up youll remember your dreams flawlessly. If you get woken up in REM you remember your dreams. Also why nightmares are so vivid memory wise. They wake your ass up! |
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| jessicah |
| quote: | Originally posted by Orbax
good call. I was referring to dreams making you move lol, only in REM :D
thats also why if you set your alarm for 15 mins before you normally wake up youll remember your dreams flawlessly. If you get woken up in REM you remember your dreams. Also why nightmares are so vivid memory wise. They wake your ass up! |
Yeah, it's the REM that's weird. The mystery of sleep is in REM, I gaurantee it. I read somewhere that people are not so much addicted to sleep, but REM sleep. They did some study where they woke people up in their REM cycles and then observed the sleeping habits. People would gradually drift back to sleep but start having more and more frequent REM cycles the more they got interrupted. Even people who got woken up during their REM cycles, went and had a full day of work, and came back and slept, almost IMMEDIATELY went into a REM cycle because they'd been deprived of their REM.
Trippy. |
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| Orbax |
hehe thats also why people get into car crashes. A large % of people falling asleep at the wheel is the nature of the brain. Lets say you sleep for 6 hours. It wants all of its REM cycles, dammit, and its going to take them the next time.
When people are doing long road trips or have been over worked and stressed out and they NEED 8 hours of sleep and for a few weeks have just stayed awake and fought the sleep...eventually your brain is like, Ite, you had your chance to pick the time, now its my turn.
*click*
They dream right into a ditch. |
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| Trancer85 |
i wonder how long a human being can live without sleeping. im assuming around 3-5 days?
without any stimulant of course. |
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| trancebrat |
When it gets dark the amount of Melatonin in your brain increases.
Melatonin
Melatonin is a natural hormone made by your body's pineal (pih-knee-uhl) gland. This is a pea-sized gland located just above the middle of the brain. During the day the pineal is inactive. When the sun goes down and darkness occurs, the pineal is "turned on" by the SCN and begins to actively produce melatonin, which is released into the blood. Usually, this occurs around 9 pm. As a result, melatonin levels in the blood rise sharply and you begin to feel less alert. Sleep becomes more inviting. Melatonin levels in the blood stay elevated for about 12 hours - all through the night - before the light of a new day when they fall back to low daytime levels by about 9 am. Daytime levels of melatonin are barely detectable. (See Figure 1)
Figure 1: Melatonin in the Blood
Besides adjusting the timing of the clock, bright light has another effect. It directly inhibits the release of melatonin. That is why melatonin is sometimes called the "Dracula of hormones" - it only comes out in the dark. Even if the pineal gland is switched "on" by the clock, it will not produce melatonin unless the person is in a dimly lit environment. In addition to sunlight, artificial indoor lighting can be bright enough to prevent the release of melatonin.
The amount of melatonin released at night varies among individuals, but it is somewhat related to age. Children on average secrete more melatonin than adults, which decreases further with age. However, research has shown that older people with sleep problems do not always have lower melatonin levels than people who experience normal sleep.
The Sleep-Wake Cycle
The pattern of waking during the day when it is light and sleeping at night when it is dark is a natural part of human life. Only recently have scientists begun to understand the alternating cycle of sleep and waking, and how it is related to daylight and darkness.
A key factor in how human sleep is regulated is exposure to light or to darkness. Exposure to light stimulates a nerve pathway from the retina in the eye to an area in the brain called the hypothala-mus. There, a special center called the supra-chiasmatic nucleus (SCN) initiates signals to other parts of the brain that control hormones, body temperature and other functions that play a role in making us feel sleepy or wide awake.
The SCN works like a clock that sets off a regulated pattern of activities that affect the entire body. Once exposed to the first light each day, the clock in the SCN begins performing functions like raising body temperature and releasing stimulating hormones like cortisol. The SCN also delays the release of other hormones like melatonin, which is associated with sleep onset, until many hours later when darkness arrives. |
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| torontotrance |
| nice cut and paste :D |
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| THE_Chris |
I did a talk for college on what would happen if Jupiter were to have become a star.
I presumed we'd all been formed etc. But since the Jupiterstar would emit light, the cycle of nighttime would be utterly ed up. We'd have much more dusk, as whenever Jupiter would be in the sky, there'd be light.
Just wondering how that would up all the sleep patterns :D |
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| Vivid Boy |
| I think it has alot to do with old seinfeld reruns at 10:30 on fox |
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| trancebrat |
| quote: | Originally posted by torontotrance
nice cut and paste :D |
Well, I am a classic insomniac. I go until I pass out. My understanding is that I produce minimal amounts of melatonin. When I was little I drove my parents crazy. I drive myself crazy sometimes. I am naturally nocturnal. When my parents inquired to a doctor he directed them to literature on melatonin. Sometimes during the week I need to take dosages to help encourage sleep because I don't produce adequate amounts on my own. Like I said...this is what was advised to me. I am not saying that this is written in stone. ;) |
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