Functional Implications of Sleep Development

Abstract

Why do we sleep? The sleep patterns and mechanisms that occur throughout development may give us a clue.

Call it sleep — what animals without backbones can tell us about the phylogeny of intrinsically generated neuromotor rhythms during early development

“…Since pre-or perinatal spontaneous movements look much the same across the animal kingdom [10,11] , the main distinction between ecto-and endothermic animals could simply be that, whereas in the latter it is the proportion of active (REM) sleep in adulthood that distinguishes one group from another, in the former it is the relative length of time that AS persists after birth and the extent to which it changes in character as it matures. in no species, in any event, has the primitive 'seismic' variant of MAS [3,12] been shown to be restricted to prenatal life or to fail to mature postnatally into a more generally familiar form of MAS [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] , i.e., characterized by generalized muscle atonia, drastically weakened twitching, cardiac and respiratory irregularity, and/or the appearance of 'paradoxically' wakelike neuronal activity patterns (Fig. 6).…”

“…aroused, form of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep [2][3][4][5][6] appears to have evolved independently in birds and mammals [7][8][9] , many cold-blooded animals -including a wide range of invertebrate species -are also on record as…”

The Mediating Role of Pathological Worry in Associations Between Dissociative Experiences and Sleep Quality Among Health Staff

“…Sleep is a crucial part of human existence, development and emotion regulation (Agargun, Boysan, & Hanoglu, 2004;Aydin et al, 2013;Boysan, 2016b;Boysan & Kagan, 2016;Gulec et al, 2011;Gulec et al, 2013;Minkel et al, 2012;Selvi et al, 2010;Siegel, 2005b). A primary function of sleep is to ensure cortically fully functioning during wakefulness (Siegel, 2005a).…”

“…Another case study pointed out linkage between dissociation and cataplexy, a sudden episode of loss of muscle tone, which is central within the symptom clusters of narcolepsy, a sleep disorder characterized by an urge to fall asleep at inappropriate times (La Via & Brewerton, 1996). Participants with a history of childhood sexual abuse reported heightened levels of dissociative symptomatology during the episodes of sleep paralysis (Abrams, Mulligan, Carleton, & Asmundson, 2008;McNally & Clancy, 2005a, 2005b. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients with dissociative sub-type reported greater hypervigilance and sleep difficulties (Ginzburg et al, 2006).…”

Developmental Implications of Sleep

“…In comparison to adult sleep cycles, much shorter sleep cycles lasting about 50 minutes, largely compromised of light sleep lead to a tendency to awaking much more easily and frequently. Infants are more receptive to arousal in active sleep that tentatively functions as a preventive factor for sudden infant dead syndrome (Kato et al, 2003) and seems to serve to brain development; contrarily, quiet sleep seems to be central in physical restoration and memory consolidation, even though the functions of sleep still remain speculative (Heraghty, Hilliard, Henderson, & Fleming, 2008;Siegel, 2005b). Neocortical maintenance and energy conservation as well as immune function is thought to be potential by-products of the quiet sleep in the infancy which is isomorphic to slow wave sleep phases in adults (Bryant, Trinder, & Curtis, 2004).…”