Lecture 12: Everyday life Flashcards
What are the two cyclical stages of sleep?
What the stages of sleep?
REM, 20-25% of sleep and it occurs for 10 minutes
NREM, it has three phases that each last for 5-15 minutes.
Sleep stages:
NREM stage 1: Eyes are closed but it’s easy to wake up
NREM stage 2: Light sleep, slower heat rate, temperature drops
NREM stage 3: Deep sleep, hard to rouse
REM: This occurs 90 minutes after falling asleep, brain wave frequencies jump and are highly active, heart rate and breathing quickens and dreams occur.
What are the three main theories about why we sleep?
Explain each
Restoration theory: Revitalising physiological and mental processes and supporting the body as cell division and protein synthesis increases during sleep.
Energy conservation theory: This is an evolutionary theory that believes that we sleep to save calories and avoid predators.
Brain function: During sleep you process information, consolidate memories, strengthen neural connections and if you don’t sleep then it can affect your learning and recall.
However, it’s likely that we sleep for multiple reasons.
How much of our life do we spend asleep?
Discuss what Foster said about sleep deprivation
36% of our lives, we are asleep.
It can cause weight gain as carbs are burned during sleep, it can cause stress which can cause a loss of memory, increase chance of illness, increased chance of diabetes.
What can sleep disorders cause?
List the two categories of sleep disorders and list a few disorders within each
They can cause distress and can impair social, occupational and family functioning.
Dyssomnias: Disturbances in the amount, quality or timing of sleep. Primary insomnia; difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, primary hypersomnia; excessive sleepiness and narcolepsy; irresistible attacks of refreshing sleep.
Parasomnias; Abnormal behaviours and psychological events during sleep. Nightmare disorder, sleep walking disorder etc.
Discuss what Wuff et al 2011 found about sleep problems
Sleep disruption is commonly reported by mental health patients and it was assumed that this was because of the medication. However, Wuff found that individuals with schizophrenia have faulty genes that are associated with initiating sleep. Therefore, mental illness could be physically linked to sleep disturbances in the brain.
Discuss the cultural factors and cultural differences in sleep
Cultural factors have influenced sleeping patterns; artificial light, we sleep several hours less than we did before electricity and one hour less than we did a century ago. We also sleep later because of this and in a single concentrated burst, compared to nomadic societies who sleep in broken up patterns.
Soldatos 2005 found that there a significant differences in the amount we sleep across cultures; portugal sleep for the longest and japan the least, about 1 and a bit hours less. Brazil nap the most, belgium have the most sleep disturbances and south africa have the most sleep medication usage.
OECD 2009 found that French people sleep about 9 hours a night whereas koreans and japanese sleep less than 8 hours.
Discuss the cultural differences of sleep patterns among children
Their sleep patterns evolve rapidly over the first year. Mendell 2010 found that children from asian countries had later bedtimes, shorter sleep time and were a lot more likely to bed share compared to caucasian countries. At 3 months, american infants sleep 13 hours a day compared to dutch infants who sleep for 15 hours. This gap diminishes but dutch children go to bed a lot earlier.
Discuss cultural differences in bedtime routines
Americans/Northern Europeans have strict established routines and parents are more worried about their child having enough sleep.
Southern Europeans allow their children to participate in family late-evening life. They are less worried about their children getting enough sleep.
Define co-sleeping
When a caregiver and infant sleep along side each other with a sensory link connecting the two, for example bed sharing.
What are the council housing expectations in the UK in terms of bedrooms?
Double bedrooms: A couple, single parent or pregnant woman. Two children of the same sex under the age of 16 and less than 9 years apart. Two children of a different sex under the age of 5.
Single bedrooms: Any other adult over 16 who is a member of the household. Any child of a different sex over the age of 5. Any child of the same sex who is more than 9 years older than their siblings.
Should children: Sleep in their own beds? Sleep in their own rooms? When should they sleep on their own? Why should they sleep on their own?
Yes
Ideally yes
It depends on gender and the age of the people they’re sharing with
To be more independent, safe and comfortable.
What did Pader 1994 find about children sleeping on their own?
There is cultural conflict due to the common misconceptions about the importance of privacy for emotional development. This is because of the state’s guidelines about what constitutes as proper living conditions. She argued that the guidelines are inappropriate for many minority communities. Some communities deem it normal to co-sleep, for example, some mexican americans or jewish americans and people need to accept different normalities. It’s not always economic necessity which social services make us believe.
What do people advise about co-sleeping?
American academy of paediatrics: bed sharing is unsafe and hazardous and it can increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) (unexplained death of a healthy baby).
UK department of health: The safest place for the child is in a cot in the parents’ bedroom, to stop the chance of SIDS, entrapment and falling of the bed.
Mumsnet: If the baby is regularly awakening at 6-8 months, then they should be moved to their own room, be fed less milk, try controlled crying and sleep training.
Medical advice: Separation is essential for healthy psychological development; possible smothering, spreading of a contagious illness, difficulty breaking this habit and sexual over-stimulation for an oedipal child.
Is co-sleeping common in middle class USA?
Crowell found that only 11% shared a bed and they believed that co-sleeping isn’t beneficial.
18 out of 19 infants sleep in separate rooms by three months. 50% by two months. It’s believed to make the child more independent.
List some evidence for co-sleeping
It can be valuable, sustained contact can enhance breastfeeding, attachment and health. From a world wide and historical perspective, it’s unusual to put a child to sleep in a separate room. Two thirds of infants sleep in the same bed, it was found from different societies around the world. 79% slept in the same room as parents out of 127 cultural groups.
