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Different characteristic sleep patterns, such as the familiarly so-called "early bird" and "night owl", are called chronotypes. Genetics and sex have some influence on chronotype, but so do habits. Chronotype is also liable to change over the course of a person's lifetime.
Eveningness (delayed sleep period; most active and alert in the evening) and morningness (advanced sleep period; most active and alert in the morning) are the two extremes with most individuals having some flexibility in the timing of their sleep period. However, across development there are changes in the propensity of the sleep period with ...
REM sleep is considered closer to wakefulness and is characterized by rapid eye movement and muscle atonia. NREM is considered to be deep sleep (the deepest part of NREM is called slow wave sleep), and is characterized by lack of prominent eye movement, or muscle paralysis. Especially during non-REM sleep, the brain uses significantly less ...
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 ]
Infant sleep also appears to have two main modes - active, associated with movement, and quiet, associated with stillness - exhibiting distinct neurological firing patterns. [4] Sleep duration is also shorter. As the infant ages, sleep begins to follow a Circadian rhythm and sleep duration increases. Infants nap frequently.
The cognitive shuffle is based on Beaudoin’s somnolent information processing theory. [5] [13] The somnolent information processing theory postulates the existence of a sleep onset control system that evolved to ensure that falling asleep tends to happen when it is evolutionarily opportune (safe, timely) to fall asleep. [14]
After sleep, there is increased insight. This is because sleep helps people to reanalyze their memories. The same patterns of brain activity that occur during learning have been found to occur again during sleep, only faster. One way that sleep strengthens memories is by weeding out the less successful connections between neurons in the brain.
In fact, many studies have found a bidirectional relationship between stress and sleep. This means that sleep quality can affect stress levels, and stress levels can affect sleep quality. Sleep change depends on the type of stressor, sleep perception, related psychiatric conditions, environmental factors, and physiological limits. [5] [6] [4] [7]