Sleep Flashcards
Sleep
A regularly occurring altered state of consciousness that typically occurs spontaneously and is primarily characterised by a loss of conscious awareness
Electroencephalograph (EEG)
Detects, amplifies and records the electrical activity of the brain i.e brainwaves
This electrical activity changes with different stages of sleep
Electromyograph (EMG)
Detects, amplifies and records the electrical activity of muscles of the body
The electrical activity of your muscles changes in different stages of sleep
Electro-oculargraph (EOG)
Detects, amplifies and records the electrical activity in the muscles controlling eye movement
Our eyes show increased movement, and therefore electrical activity, in certain stages of sleep
Heart rate and body temperature
Temperature and heart rate decrease across the night as we enter different stages of sleep
Heart rate can show sudden increases in times of dreaming
Video monitoring
Video cameras are used to record the externally observable behaviour such as movement and sound
Self reports
Subjects can keep a sleep diary where they keep records of sleep behaviour, dreaming and other phenomenon
Restorative theory
Sleep provides “timeout” to help us recover from depleting activities during waking time that use up the body’s physical and mental resources
Survival theory
Sleep evolved to increase chances of survival by making organisms inactive during the time when movement is riskier
Microsleep
A very short period of drowsiness or sleep that occurs while a person is apparently awake (most commonly associate with sleep deprivation)
REM rebound
The recovery (catching up) of REM sleep immediately a period of lost REM sleep by spending more time than usual in REM sleep
Sleep spindles
Occur during stage 2
Brief burst of higher frequency brain wave activity
Indicates that the person is truly asleep
K complex
Occur during stage 2
Bursts of low frequency and slightly higher amplitude waves in response to external stimuli
