Psychology and Neuroscience Stack Exchange
Psychology and Neuroscience Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [sleep]

For questions pertaining to the physiology and pathophysiology of sleep in humans and animals (e.g., sleep stages and their EEG patterns, sleep disturbances), along with psychological effects of sleep deprivation or fatigue.

For questions pertaining to the physiology and pathophysiology of sleep in humans and animals (e.g., sleep stages and their EEG patterns, sleep disturbances), along with psychological effects of sleep deprivation or fatigue.

Sleep is divided up into 5 stages (stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM). Since 2007, NREM sleep has been reclassified into stages N1, N2, N3, with N3 being a combination of the former stages 3 and 4; however, most scientific papers are still using the old system, so I'll refer to them by the old stage names. Below, you can see a typical hypnogram, where sleep stage is plotted versus time for one night's sleep. Cycles through the night tend to progress from 1→2→3→2→REM, but can change unexpectedly if the subject is awakened.

enter image description here

(image from Wikipedia, content from this question)

For further information, see Sleep.

For the canonical text in this field, see Dement's or Ferber's.

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Can you catch up on sleep over the weekend?

The lack of sleep has many negative effects associated with it. Maintained sleep deprivation results in a degraded performance over time (in this case reaction time). Assuming one needs 8 hours of sleep each night, but during the weekdays he only…
Steven Jeuris
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Is there a reduction of "Brain Fog" with fewer hours of sleep?

I've heard patients who complain of "brain fog" (and fatigue) claim a reduction in "brain fog" (and more mental clarity) when they get fewer hours of sleep (usually less than 5.5 hours). Here I'd define brain fog as a lack of mental clarity, slow…
Bradford
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How does daily amount of sleep vary within and between healthy adults?

I'm interested in research that has employed the following or similar research design: Measure the daily amount of sleep every day for an for an extended period (e.g., more than a month) in a relatively large sample (e.g., $n > 100$) of "normal"…
Jeromy Anglim
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What defines the easiest time to get out of bed in the morning for humans?

I'm interested in sleep research, and sometimes in conversations with people the following idea gets discussed: "A person becomes aware at a certain time in the morning and feel great(while still in bed). But the wake up time is later, so that…
Alex Stone
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Can adults adapt to less sleep?

I am asking whether adults, especially in circumstances like a monastery or Zen center, can become able long-term to sleep only about 4 to 5 hours a night? So, that would mean: no children to care for, no heavy labor, lots of time spent meditating…
user9634
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If you sleep during the day, do you need less sleep at night?

If, say, you sleep 2-3 hours during the day (in the afternoon) - Do you need less sleep at night? After all, subjects feel less tired in the evening after sleeping during day. Can sleep hours be accumulated in a linear fashion? For example: Will…
user914
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Is there any scientific data showing one can learn while sleeping?

Time is short in the days of learning for me but I like listening to lectures and case studies about code in my field. I've thought about getting a Bluetooth Sleep Headphone to possibly listen to these lectures and studies while sleeping. However,…
Gʀɪᴍ
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What factors determine a healthy individual's required amount of sleep?

I suppose that it is well-known that different people need different amounts of sleep. I read somewhere that most people need something between 7 and 8 hours each day, though some people need only 6 hours, and (for instance) I have two friends who…
J. Doe
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Why do Spiritual people try to sleep less?

In Monasteries and other spiritual contexts, there seems to be a "rule" that sleep is wasted time, and so the usual daily schedule only allows for about 4-5 hours of sleep. This might be enough for an 80-year-old, but anyone else will probably be…
user9634
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Waking around the same time without an alarm

Anecdotal background I find that regardless of what time I go to bed, or how exhausted I am, I always wake up the next morning between 5 and 6am. This is despite my alarm being consistently set for 6:15am. I used to work in an industry, over 15…
user3554
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Is Melatonin necessary to sleep?

Consider a scenario where a person's melatonin secretion gets inhibited (and that person also don't get external melatonin); Will this person feel sleepiness and a desire to sleep? Or, since that person is not having melatonin being secreted, there…
Mycroft
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How many times on average do people wake up per night?

It would be best if the answer could be broken down by age and sex, and even by other variables (alcohol-drinker vs teetotaller, etc). If there's a difference between self-report data and data from studies that observe people sleeping, I'm…
user1205901 - Слава Україні
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How to compare cumulative sleep debts?

Let's say that after a period of sleeping perfectly, I sleep for the following amount of hours on some consecutive days. (Let's say the optimal hours I sleep is 8 hours. For the sake of simplicity, all the hours of sleep have equal quality.) How…
mic
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Is there a way to make oneself more sleepy?

Background motivation: Is there is a way to correct sleeping patterns to go to bed at least at midnight, not later than that? If I do not feel tired/sleepy enough, can I "prime" or "cheat" myself to fall asleep earlier? Is there any kind of method…
DetectiveShmee
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Difference between drowsiness/sedation and sleepiness

I have been trying to understand the difference between drowsiness/sedation and sleepiness. The only article I was able to find that partly answers my question is "The difference between sedation and sleep" on ipnos.com. I have experienced both, and…
OhBeeHive
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