The Science of Sleep: Unlocking the Mysteries of Rest and Recovery

The Science of Sleep

The Science of Sleep

Elias Hartley

Contents

Introduction to Sleep

Physiology of Sleep

Neuroscience of Sleep

Sleep Disorders

Sleep and Mental Health

Sleep and Physical Health

Sleep and Cognitive Function

Sleep Hygiene and Best Practices

Technological Advancements in Sleep Research

Cultural and Societal Perspectives on Sleep

The Future of Sleep Research

Copyright © 2024 by Elias Hartley

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Printing, 2024

1

Introduction to Sleep

Advances in the techniques of genetics combined with computational power have revealed nearly all of the genetic sequences responsible for the attributes of life. These technical revolutions have also greatly expanded our general understanding of our brains' makeup, how they work, and what they do. Neuroscience has provided us with the exciting possibility that we could, for the first time, understand one of the most puzzling aspects of our lives: why, despite the obvious dangers associated with being oblivious to the world around us, do we still sleep?

Advances in neuroscience have also provided us with powerful tools to manipulate the molecules that interact in our brains' complex neural networks. Could this knowledge indeed reveal the reasons why we are unconscious for a third of our lives? We are now convinced that this could indeed happen. In this book, we argue extensively that such an understanding is within our grasp.

Sleep is a universal aspect of the lives of most complex living organisms. Nearly every organism on earth undergoes some form of rest and recovery from sensory and motor demands—what we would generally call sleep in humans. Yet, sleep has remained one of the most enigmatic and difficult-to-understand physiological phenomena. What is most surprising is that we still have very little understanding of why we even sleep. It is pretty clear that sleep serves some absolutely fundamental biological needs, and