Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Current genome-wide association studies suggest that sleep behaviors such as sleep length are highly polygenic, with most heritability explained by variants with small effects. The largest non-pathogenic genetic effect on sleep duration found to date is a change of 2.44 [ 32 ] or 3.24 [ 33 ] minutes associated with variation in the PAX8 gene.
Several artists have created films or videos which paved the way for slow television. Among them are Andy Warhol, with films such as Sleep, a 320-minute looped film showing a person sleeping, and Brian Eno, who created the video Mistaken Memories of Medieval Manhattan (1980–81), which displayed views of the Manhattan skyline and drifting clouds.
Sleep is regulated by two parallel mechanisms, homeostatic regulation and circadian regulation, controlled by the hypothalamus and the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), respectively. Although the exact nature of sleep drive is unknown, homeostatic pressure builds up during wakefulness and this continues until the person goes to sleep.
The sleep environment may be improved by installing heavy drapes to shut out all sunlight, and keeping computers, televisions, and work materials out of the sleeping area. A 2010 review of published scientific research suggested that exercise generally improves sleep for most people, and helps sleep disorders such as insomnia.
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 ]
A young house sparrow (Passer domesticus) exhibits unihemispheric slow-wave sleep. Unihemispheric slow-wave sleep (USWS) is sleep where one half of the brain rests while the other half remains alert. This is in contrast to normal sleep where both eyes are shut and both halves of the brain show unconsciousness.
Sleep can follow a physiological or behavioral definition. In the physiological sense, sleep is a state characterized by reversible unconsciousness, special brainwave patterns, sporadic eye movement, loss of muscle tone (possibly with some exceptions; see below regarding the sleep of birds and of aquatic mammals), and a compensatory increase following deprivation of the state, this last known ...
A Flinders University study of individuals restricted to only five hours of sleep per night found a 10-minute nap was overall the most recuperative nap duration of various nap lengths they examined (lengths of 0 min, 5 min, 10 min, 20 min, and 30 minutes): the 5-minute nap produced few benefits in comparison with the no-nap control; the 10 ...