If you\'re still confused about sleep, see this Scientific American article by J
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Question
If you're still confused about sleep, see this Scientific American article by Jerome Siegel for a good description of sleep and sleep theories (0 also provided a link to this article in the Week 4 Content). Also, you might like to see this recent video for an overview of sleep. Biological Clocks Sleep is an integral part of our biological clocks, and the lack of it can wreak havoc orn our emotions and memory. A forward shift in their biological clock may be why teenagers can't get up in the morning. To answer the following discussion topic, it will be helpful to view the "Body Clock" video in the course content. It's not just us - who knew mold had their own biological clock? Here are the questions (please answer both) 1. If you had to pick only one theory on why we sleep, which one would it be? Why deo you pick this one out of the rest? Which line of reasoning or research finding do you think is the most compelling? 2. What is the relationship between sleep and our biological clock? What are some ways that you (or someone elsel might disrupt your biological clock, even with day to day activities? What could you do to counteract this effect? Unread Repliesl ViewsExplanation / Answer
Sleep has been the subject of speculation and thought since the time of the early Greek philosophers, but only recently have researchers discovered ways to study sleep in a systematic and objective way. The introduction of new technology such as the electroencephalograph (EEG) has allowed scientists to look at and measure electrical patterns and activity produced by the sleeping brain. Two theories of sleep are most compelling to me. The first one is the repair and restoration theory of sleep, which tends to suggest that humans sleep in order to restore their phsiological processes and get them back to functioning. This theory suggests that NREM sleep is important for restoring physiological functions, while REM sleep is essential in restoring mental functions. The other convincing theory is the evolutionary perspective. This suggests that sleep is for adaptive purposes wherein periods of activity and inactivity evolved as a means of conserving energy. According to this theory, all species have adapted to sleep during periods of time when wakefulness would be the most hazardous. Evidence for this is the fact that animals that have more natural predators have short periods of sleep whereas the ones which have lesser number of predators sleep for 12-15 hours a day. The first one however, is a more convincing theory relevant to human beings as a species.