Oswald's Restoration Theory Flashcards
Explain Oswald’s Restoration theory (1966)
The most straightforward biological theory is Oswald 1966. Oswald suggested that sleep restores depleted resources of energy, removes waste from muscles and repairs cells. During the day waste chemicals build up in the muscles following physical exertion meanwhile neurotransmitters used for communication in the nervous system are likely to be used up. Sleep therefore would be an ideal time for the body to remove this waste and replenish levels of neurotransmitters for the next day. Oswald suggested that nREM sleep is the time for replenishing the body. This theory would explain processes like digestion which removes waste and helps muscle growth and repair. It would also explain when we get a cut and wake up to see the repairing process has started. However, these processes also occur when awake to a lesser extent.
How does Oswald’s theory relate to other research and areas of psychology?
Restoration is an area not mentioned in Crick and Mitchison’s 1986 reorganisational theory. This theory suggests the function of dreams is to make the most of our memory storing abilities. They believe some memories get deleted overnight to make storage more efficient.
In 1983 Adam and Oswald added to the restoration theory in include REM sleep restoration. They believe that REM sleep helps restore the brain. They also believe it replenishes and renews brain processes through the process of protein synthesis.
Shapiro et al 1981 which studied runners on a 57 mile run found that participants slept 90 minutes longer on average over the next two nights which shows the body’s role in restoring and replenishing.
What are some real life implications of Oswald’s restoration theory?
Peter Tripp showed that we need sleep in order to restore the brain and neurotransmitters. We also need sleep in order to properly concentrate and can’t properly process information when deprived of sleep. After lack of sleep, Peter Tripp struggled with cognitive processes and was confused and hallucinating. Sleeping less results in poorer performance and increased chance of injury showing the restoration theory is accurate for brain restoration.
Another real life example of the restoration theory could be when we get a cut. After going to bed and waking up again we should be able to observe the start of the healing process of this cut which shows that the restoration theory is accurate as sleep is crucial to the healing processes of things like cuts. We also sleep more when ill or stressed and people can be put into induced comas to allow brain and body to recover.
What did Oswald conclude?
Oswald concluded that the biological theory makes sense and that it can be easily applied to real life. However, there are conflicting views on restoration and further research needs to be carried out on restoration of both the brain and body as the findings are crucial to jobs that involve the night shift.
What are two strengths of Oswald’s theory?
This theory makes sense and can be observed whenever you have a cut and go to bed, you can observe the the start of the healing process the next day, this is a strength as it shows real life applications of the theory.
Oswald also considers the physiological processes that account for the effects on the body after demanding exercise, and it may explain cognitive errors observed in in sleep deprivation studies. This is a strength as it makes the theory reliable and valid in real life situations.
What are two weaknesses of Oswald’s theory?
The evidence for the role of sleep in restoring the body is conflicting, this is a weakness as the evidence implies that sleep is important to the restoration of the brain alone, not the brain and body as the theory suggests. It has been found that bodily restoration can be achieved by resting alone.
Cell repair has been shown to carry on for 24 hours a day. This is a weakness of the theory as it shows that cell repair is not confined to sleep periods , although it does increase during sleep because of inactivity.
