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As humans fall asleep, body activity slows down. Body temperature, heart rate, breathing rate, and energy use all decrease. Brain waves slow down. The excitatory neurotransmitter acetylcholine becomes less available in the brain. [9] Humans often maneuver to create a thermally friendly environment—for example, by curling up into a ball if cold.
During sleep, there is a marked decrease in muscle activity and interactions with the surrounding environment. While sleep differs from wakefulness in terms of the ability to react to stimuli, it still involves active brain patterns, making it more reactive than a coma or disorders of consciousness. [1]
Sleep spindles, marked by spindle-like changes in the amplitude of 12–14 Hz oscillations, K complexes lasting at least 0.5 seconds, consisting of a distinct negative sharp wave followed by a positive component, and slow waves or delta waves characterized by slow frequency (< 2 Hz) and high amplitude (> 75 μV) are key indicators. [21]
In a study with 3000 patients, it was found that men and women who sleep less than 5 hours have elevated body mass index (BMI). In another study that followed about 70.000 women for 16 years, there was a significant increase in body weight in those who slept 5 hours or less compared to those who slept 7–8 hours. [1] [2] [8]
But in people with dementia—which is an umbrella term for mental decline and can be related to a number of diseases such as Alzheimer's—there’s a phenomenon known as “sundowning,” where ...
The results of the study indicate that performance is significantly worse on free recall of the list of nouns when sleep deprived (an average of 2.8 ± 2 words) compared to having a normal night of sleep (4.7 ± 4 words). In terms of brain regions activated, the left prefrontal cortex, premotor cortex, and temporal lobes were found to be ...
The study’s first finding is that sleeping between 7 and 9 hours each night was optimal for brain function and boosting cognitive ability. Sleeping less than 7 hours and more than 9 hours ...
Tidal volume has also been shown to be increased, decreased or unchanged by quantitative measures in REM sleep. So breathing during REM sleep is somewhat discordant. In a study of 19 healthy adults, the minute ventilation in REM sleep was 6.46 +/- 0.29( SEM ) liters/minute compared to 7.66 +/- 0.34 liters/minute when awake.