The Theory of the Function of Sleep Essay - 1147 Words

The Theory of the Function of Sleep One theory of sleep is the Restoration theory proposed by Oswald et al in 1966, which suggests that the function of sleep, especially REM sleep is to restore the energy levels and to repair the brain and body. Restoration can be physical and psychological. Physical restoration indicates that sleep is necessary to restore biological processes in the body through REM sleep and Stage 4/NREM sleep. NREM sleep is when the bodys processes are restored such as hormone levels and REM sleep is when the brains processes are restored, such as protein synthesis. Psychological restoration says that sleep is a vital function as it restores psychological functions and helps†¦show more content†¦Adam and Oswald supported this, because they found that tissue restoration such as cell repair occurred during this sleep. Also Shapiro et al (1981) found that people taking part in a 57 mile ultra marathon slept longer than normal people the next two nights and spend longer in the Stage 4 of sle ep in order to give time for their body to recover. However this study is not very reliable because it has also been found that inactivity does not reduce the need for sleep, because Ryback et al (1971) found no change in the sleep required by people who spent six weeks in bed. This suggests that sleep is not only for restoration because otherwise people would have to sleep even less when they havent done any exercise. There is also little evidence to suggest a lot of exercise makes you sleep longer the only difference is to appears to be that people fall asleep faster. Horne and Milard found that when participants were given exhausting tasks to do and the only difference was that they fell asleep faster; therefore this implies that sleep does not have a restorative function. It has also been found that stage 4 sleep declines with age possibly due to the lack of growth hormone needed. The effects of a lack of stage 4Show MoreRelatedThe Theory, The Energy Conservation Theory1419 Word s   |  6 PagesIntroduction: what is sleep: Sleeping is something that most creatures of the animal kingdom have in common. A period of time where the body seemingly ceases to function. The average human is supposed to sleep 7-8 hours a day, and although this varies from species to species, the core function stays the same.The dictionary definition of sleep is â€Å"the natural state of rest during which your eyes are closed and you become unconscious†.(Sleep, n.d.) 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