Blog Post #4

Hello

I listened to Teens and Sleep. Three adults were talking about teens not getting enough sleep. They took a survery and talked to parents about the teens' lifestyles. I thought it was very interesting and relevant to me because I do not get the recommended 9 hours of sleep every night. It is hard to when you have 8 hours of school, homework, a job, family, friends, and a boyfriend. There isn't eough time to do everything expected and also do well in everything. I thought it was very interesting that the average amount of sleep for seniors is 6.9 hours. I typically get around that many hours of sleep but eventually I get completely drained and during most of my weekends I have to sleep in late in order to make up the time.

I also learned from this chapter that our bodies are synchronized with the 24 hour cycle of day and night through our biological time clock called circadian rhythm. Thinking is sharpest and our memory is most vivid when we are at our daily peak of circadian arousal. Bright light at night tends to delay sleep and bright light in the morning tweaks our clock and activates light-sensitive retinal proteins that send signals to our brain. It is hard for me to fall asleep when there is a light on but easy for me to get up when I see light. I agree with this since if I am very tired I usually get a second wind during the day.

I was surprised to find out that there are four stages to our sleep. During Stage 1 you will experience hallucinations and fantastic images. You may also have a sense of falling. Then you tend to relax more deeply and Stage 2 sleep is characterized by sleep spindles or bursts of brain wave activity. Steeptalking tends to occur during this time. Then you will transition to Stage 3 then Stage 4. The brain will then emit large slow delta waves that last for 30 minutes each. At the end of Stage 4 children are most like to wet the bed or start sleepwalking. I thought that was surprising because I did not know that when we sleep so much stuff happens in our brain that causes us to do weird things.

I agree that the age related differences between us depict the amount of sleep we need. I think that sleep may be genetically influenced as well as environmently. With sleep we feel refreshed and tend to be in a better mood. Honestly I agree with everything that the book said.