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Under experimental conditions, humans tend to alternate more frequently between sleep and wakefulness (i.e., exhibit more polyphasic sleep) if they have nothing better to do. [33] Given a 14-hour period of darkness in experimental conditions, humans tended towards bimodal sleep, with two sleep periods concentrated at the beginning and at the ...
Polyphasic sleep is the practice of sleeping during multiple periods over the course of 24 hours, in contrast to monophasic sleep, which is one period of sleep within 24 hours. Biphasic (or diphasic , bifurcated , or bimodal ) sleep refers to two periods, while polyphasic usually means more than two. [ 1 ]
The sleep cycle is an oscillation between the slow-wave and REM (paradoxical) phases of sleep. It is sometimes called the ultradian sleep cycle, sleep–dream cycle, or REM-NREM cycle, to distinguish it from the circadian alternation between sleep and wakefulness. In humans, this cycle takes 70 to 110 minutes (90 ± 20 minutes). [1]
Within a few months of postnatal development, there is a marked reduction in percentage of hours spent in REM sleep. By the time the child becomes an adult, he spends about 6–7 hours in NREM sleep and only about an hour in REM sleep. [46] [47] This is true not only of humans, but of many animals dependent on their parents for food. [48]
The Oxford English Dictionary's definition of Ultradian specifies that it refers to cycles with a period shorter than a day but longer than an hour. [1] The descriptive term ultradian is used in sleep research in reference to the 90–120 minute cycling of the sleep stages during human sleep. [2]
For people with insomnia who spend a significant amount of their time in bed awake, feeling anxious and irritated, sleep restriction therapy can help boost their sleep efficiency, making the bed a ...
A nap is a short period of sleep, typically taken during daytime hours as an adjunct to the usual nocturnal sleep period. Naps are most often taken as a response to drowsiness during waking hours. A nap is a form of biphasic or polyphasic sleep, where the latter terms also include longer periods of sleep in addition to one period. For years ...
Humans need different amounts of sleep during different stages of life, but individual sleep needs will vary slightly based on genetics, health, behavior and environment.