1.
Introduction to Sleep and Biological Rhythms
Sleep is a vital physiological state characterized by reduced consciousness, sensory activity, and
muscle activity. While the exact purpose of sleep remains unknown, it plays a crucial role in
physical and mental health.
Biological rhythms are cyclical patterns of biological processes regulated by internal biological
clocks. These rhythms include the sleep-wake cycle, hormone production, body temperature, and
metabolism. The circadian rhythm, controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the brain's
hypothalamus, is particularly important in synchronizing our physiological processes with the
day-night cycle. External factors like light exposure, social cues, stress, and exercise can
influence the circadian rhythm.
Other theories propose that sleep is necessary for processes like protein synthesis, cellular repair,
and neuro-garbage disposal. However, these functions also occur during wakefulness, leaving the
exact function of sleep a mystery that researchers continue to explore.
2. STAGES OF SLEEP:
Sleep is not one constant state for our brain but involves steps where our brains slips from
consciousness to unconsciousness and back. It is an intricate system that is best understood by
studying the brain waves. The stages of sleep are as follows:
Stage 1
Stage 1, also called N1, is essentially when a person first falls asleep. This stage normally lasts
just one to seven minutes.
During N1 sleep, the body has not fully relaxed, though the body and brain activities start to
slow with periods of brief movements. There are light changes in brain activity associated with
falling asleep in this stage.
It is easy to wake someone up during this sleep stage, but if a person is not disturbed, they can
move quickly into stage 2. As the night unfolds, an uninterrupted sleeper may not spend much
more time in stage 1 as they move through further sleep cycles.
Stage 2
During stage 2, or N2, the body enters a more subdued state including a drop in temperature,
relaxed muscles, and slowed breathing and heart rate. At the same time, brain waves show a new
pattern and eye movement stops. On the whole, brain activity slows, but there are short bursts of
activity that actually help resist being woken up by external stimuli.
Stage 2 sleep can last for 10 to 25 minutes during the first sleep cycle, and each N2 stage can
become longer during the night. Collectively, a person typically spends about half their sleep
time in N2 sleep.
STAGE 3 (NEM3):
The NEM3 (no eye movement) is also known as slow wave sleep or deep sleep. The
electromagnetic waves of the brain are low frequency and high amplitude, also known as delta
waves. These waves make up at least 20% of brain activity. This stage is especially important to
overall restfulness.
STAGE 4 (REM):
Before moving to the fourth stage, REM (rapid eye movement), the sleeper moves rapidly
through the first and second stages. The EEG (electroencephalogram) in REM sleep resembles
stage 1 where the muscles are relaxed and limp, but the eyes move rapidly. This is the stage
where the sleeper gets dreams as well.
After REM sleep a person would wake up briefly but then would go through the stages of sleep
in order (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th). Most people go through these cycles four to five times a night with
each cycle lasting anywhere from 90 to 10 minutes.
3. Disorder:
Insomnia Disorder: -
Definition: - A common sleep issue known as insomnia can make it difficult to get asleep, stay
asleep, or lead you to wake up too early and have difficulty falling back asleep.
Symptoms: -
Symptoms of insomnia can be:
Episodic (with an episode of symptoms lasting one to three months)
Persistent (with symptoms lasting three months or more)
Recurrent (with two or more episodes during the year)
Insomnia symptoms can also be triggered by a specific life event or situation.
Neural Changing: -
Misalignment of circadian process leading to phase delays or advances (prolonged
sleep-onset latency).
Delayed or advanced melatonin secretion.
Dysfunction of homeostatic process.
Over-activity in the hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortices.
Hyper somnolence Disorder: -
Definition: - When a person has hyper somnolence, they continue to feel excessively sleepy
even after getting at least seven hours of quality sleep.
Symptoms of Hyper somnolence: -
You sleep longer than average (10 or more hours), yet you are very sleepy during the day
and have trouble staying awake during the day.
Anxiety, irritability.
Slow thinking, slow speech, inability to focus/concentrate, memory problems.
Headache.
Hallucination.
Neural Changing: -
Several neurotransmitter and neuromodulators are involved in the regulation of sleep-
wakefulness. However, amongst these the two main neurotransmitters/neuromodulators
implicated in hypersomnia are hypocretins (also known as orexins) and prostaglandin D2.It can
also result from a physical problem, such as a tumor, head trauma, or injury to the central
nervous system.
NIGHTMARE DISORDER
Nightmare disorder is when nightmares happen often causing distress, disruptive sleep, and
problems with daytime functioning or create fear of going to sleep.
The common causes of nightmare disorders are stress, negative life events, experience of trauma
(posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, other psychiatric disorders, and medication
side effects.
Symptoms
The common symptoms are as following
• Feeling scared
• Anxious
• Angry
• Disgusted as a result of your dream.
• Feeling sweaty
• Pounding heartbeat while in bed. You can think clearly upon awakening and can recall
details of your dream. Your dream causes distress that keeps you from falling back to sleep
easily.
NEURAL CHANGING
Flight or fight response is unusually active
High level of stress hormones (adrenaline, noradrenaline, dopamine and serotonin)
Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that has been proven to hugely influence rapid eye
movement and sleeping
4. CIRCARDIUM RHYTHM
The circadian rhythm refers to the body’s internal biological clock. It is also known as the 24-
hour sleep-wake cycle. The circadian rhythm is affected by external factors such as light during
the day and darkness in addition to other factors such as the temperature of the surrounding and
the time at which a meal is taken. The superchiasmatic nucleus or SCN, located in the
hypothalamus is primarily responsible for regulating or circadian rhythm. The most prominent
effect of the Circadian rhythm is that it promotes wakefulness during the day and sleep and
drowsiness during the night. In addition to this, the circadian rhythm also plays a key role in the
release of various hormones. For instance, cortisol might be released in substantial amount
during the day after waking up for the promotion of wakefulness and alertness while melatonin
may be released during the night for promoting sleep. Moreover, cognitive abilities such as
memory, focus, attention and learning may be affected if the circadian rhythm is disturbed. This
also might explain why disruptions to the circadian rhythms can cause unwanted problems such
as “jet lag”.
