The Science of Sleep
1. There are two states of sleeping: REM (rapid-eye movement) and non-REM (or NREM) sleep. REM sleep occurs when the mind is alert while the body is sleeping, and in NREM the mind is asleep while the body may be at various states of being awake.
2. REM Sleep (20 - 25% of our sleep): This is when most of our dreaming occurs. Most people experience four or five episodes of REM sleep each night, with the episodes getting progressively longer through the evening.
3. NREM Sleep (75 - 80% of our sleep): Non-REM sleep is actually divided into four stages. During the first stage, we're just falling asleep while the body may still be active. In the second stage, we lose awareness of our environment, and in the third stage, we experience "slow-wave sleep" which is a transition to the final phase. Phase four is the deepest period of sleep, the stage at which it can be most difficult to wake a sleeper, and this is when occurrences such as sleep walking, sleep talking, bed-wetting and other cases of the body still functioning, may be noted.
4. Sleep is thought to serve several biological and physiological functions: Restoration (when the body recuperates from activity experienced while awake), Memorization (when the mind processes and stores data into memory), and possibly even Preservation (some scientists have theorized that animals have evolved to prefer sleep during times when they are most vulnerable to other animals or harsh environments).
5. How much time should we sleep? Several different studies have suggested different answers. Research by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine concluded that our cognitive performance suffers when we don't get at least eight hours of sleep. And a University of California, San Diego study found that people who live the longest typically sleep between six and seven hours per night.
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6. Shining light on the back of your knees during sleep can reset your body clock. The journal Science published a study by University of Virginia researchers that found when sleeping subjects had their knees exposed to light, their internal body clocks were reset, allowing them to overcome fatigue from insomnia or jet lag. (Source)
7. A dolphin sleeps with half its brain asleep, then shifts to let the other half sleep, all the while swimming. Whales must sleep with their head above water or they will drown. Penguins sleep standing up in groups, taking turns of moving to the outside to block icy winds so others may sleep. (from How Animals Sleep by Dr. Colin Shapiro)
8. Lack of sleep is known to cut our performance on a wide variety of mental and physical tasks. Studies have shown that after being awake for 17 hours straight, the human body performs as if the person has a blood alcohol level of .005%, the equivalent of two glasses of wine. Sleep deprivation is believed to have been a factor in some of the most notable recent man-made disasters: the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island nuclear accidents, the space shuttle Challenger explosion, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. (Source)
9. Sleep may also help us forget unnecessary information. While scientists believe sleeping helps us commit the days events to memory, some researchers also think sleep helps us "unlearn" things that aren't essential and would otherwise overcrowd our brains.
10. We may learn better right before sleeping. Researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston found that subjects who learned tasks right before sleeping performed the tasks better over subsequent days than those who learned the same tasks many hours before sleeping.
Sources: www.nytimes.com; wikipedia.org; www.time.com; www.harpercollins.com (Dr. Stephen Juan)
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