Professor Heller introduces you to the many consequences of short or disrupted sleep, along with accounts of medical mistakes and large-scale disasters likely to have occurred due to sleep deprivation. Contemplate our “National Sleep Deficit” and learn the professor’s hypothesis for the purpose of sleep, which science has yet to fully explain.
Given the long-standing interest in sleep, why is the science of sleep so relatively new? As you identify the defining features of sleep as a foundation for later lectures, you explore the tools researchers use to study sleep patterns and what experiments have taught us about the key characteristics of REM and non-REM sleep, including dreams.
Examine hypnograms that show how the various stages of REM and non-REM sleep cycle throughout the night. Then, find out how the REM and non-REM sleep states relate, how they change throughout the sleep phase, and why the brain may create changes in sleep intensity to help you “pay back” a sleep deficit.
Is there a biological basis for the sleep changes that commonly occur over a person’s lifespan? Learn how your brain’s circadian rhythms regulate sleep, then compare the sleep patterns of precocial and altricial species. Discover the disorders that can impair the restorative quality of sleep and problems associated with sleeping too much.
There are thousands of animal species in the world. Do they all have the same need to sleep as we do? Learn the three basic characteristics of sleep that can generally be applied to animals, then investigate the sleep patterns of various species, including migratory birds, arthropods, monotremes, and marine mammals that are able to sleep on only one side of their brains at a time.
In the first of two lectures on understanding the clock in your brain and how it controls virtually every aspect of physiology and behavior, you’ll learn the essential characteristics of circadian rhythms and how working against your clock can result in health and performance problems. Investigate phase advances and delays related to jet lag and shift work.
As you turn to the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for the characteristics of circadian rhythms, the professor offers a basic lesson in molecular genetics before discussing “clock genes” and how they can constitute a negative feedback system with a delay in the feedback loop.
Hibernation is an adaptation that enables some warm-blooded animals to turn down their thermostats for spans of hours to months in an effort to conserve energy. In the first of two lectures that explore the neural systems that control sleep and wakefulness, investigate the evolutionary explanations for and mechanisms of hibernation in squirrels and bears, as well as daily torpor in birds.
Many discrete structures in the brain are involved in the control of sleep and wakefulness. Delve into neuroanatomy and neurochemistry, which are necessary to understand how and why we sleep, and how medications and other factors influence sleep. Grasp the significance of discoveries by Giuseppe Moruzzi, Constantin von Economo, and others through an in-depth examination of sleep pathologies.
Go a step further in discovering the cellular function of non-REM sleep by identifying the cellular changes produced by wakefulness and reversed during sleep, and investigating the processes underlying the generation of slow-wave activity on the EEG. Learn about the fundamental principles of electrical circuits as you explore how a neuron functions like a tiny battery.
Narcolepsy is an incurable neurological disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, disrupted nighttime sleep, bizarre hallucinations at sleep onset, and cataplexy. Analyze research exploring the possibility of a genetic component to this disorder in humans and canines, and learn what medications and other treatments are available to manage it.
What are dreams and what do they mean? Examine Freudian-Jungian psychoanalytic theory and methods relating to the unconscious as well as scientific hypotheses for the occurrence of dreams. Consider the therapeutic potential of “lucid dreaming” for treating nightmares in post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers and the possibility that dreaming may enhance our ability to be creative.
In the first of several lectures that explore hypotheses on the function of sleep, focus on the idea that sleep is for the restoration of brain energy reserves that are depleted during periods of wakefulness. Analyze the relationship between sleep and glycogen metabolism, as well as the molecule adenosine.
Why do non-REM and REM cycle, with non-REM always first? Why is non-REM sleep deeper early in the night? Delve into the fundamental relationship between non-REM and REM and question the common assumption that the need for sleep builds during wakefulness. Extend your analysis into a hypothesis about the basic function of REM sleep.
In studying the interactions between sleep and the stages of procedural memory—including encoding, consolidation, stabilization, reactivation, and reconsolidation—you’ll focus on experiments that seek to identify which type of sleep contributes to the consolidation of procedural memories and whether this effect can be exploited to maximize learning.
Turn now to declarative memory and the ways that sleep impacts our capacity to form and integrate conscious memories and improves our ability to use the facts we remember. Explore hypotheses about memory consolidation, reactivation, and reconsolidation by analyzing a working model of two-step memory processes involving the hippocampus and cortex.
For both humans and animals, sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation and therefore, learning. Focus on evidence that sleep promotes structural changes in the nervous system, then move on to the neurophysiological processes of memory consolidation. Conclude by looking at factors that can disrupt the sleep-related functions required for learning and memory.
Using your understanding of how sleep is critically involved in learning and memory, explore whether an underlying cause for learning disabilities may be related to sleep systems or mechanisms, and whether they offer a route to a therapy. Consider the potential for improving learning and memory in individuals with Down syndrome, specifically.
Move on from lectures exploring how we “sleep to learn” to the first of several lectures concerned with “learning to sleep.” Differentiate between primary and secondary insomnias as you identify some of the major causes of sleep disruption, and confront the consequences suffered by those who delay sleep—both intentionally and unintentionally.
Sleep apnea is a major cause of insomnia, yet it’s often misdiagnosed. First, touch on central sleep apnea in infants and sudden infant death syndrome, then delve into the causes, signs, consequences, and treatments associated with obstructive sleep apnea—the most common form of the disorder in adults.
Make sense of various types of parasomnias—undesirable behaviors or phenomena that occur predominantly or exclusively during sleep—including sleep walking, sleep-related eating disorder, night terrors, periodic limb movement, sleep paralysis, and sexsomnia. Then, consider how the legal principle of mens rea applies to sleepwalkers who have allegedly committed heinous crimes.
Return to a question posed in the lecture on sleep in the animal kingdom: Why take the brain off-line during sleep if the function of sleep is not for the brain? Look at experiments studying the effects of sleep loss on rats as you investigate sleep’s role in a range of physiological processes. Then, see how shortened sleep contributes to obesity and immune system failure in humans.
How can you improve your quality of sleep? Start by delving into the efficacy and potential dangers of various pharmaceutical solutions to the problem of insomnia, including herbal remedies such as kava-kava and chamomile tea; barbiturates; benzodiazepines; caffeine; and amphetamines. Then, look at the nonpharmaceutical approaches of good sleep hygiene and cognitive behavioral therapy.
Will we ever fully comprehend the function of sleep? See how sleep and treatment for sleep problems might change in years to come, and consider how continuing progress in understanding sleep’s role in learning and memory processes may enhance education and hold therapeutic potential for treating post-traumatic stress disorder.