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Special Feature


The Science of Sleep: What Do We Know Thus Far?


By Dr. Robert Oexman, Director of the Sleep To Live Institute It wasn’t until the latter half of the 20th cen- tury that scientists started to take a real in- terest in sleep from a neurological perspec- tive and not until the late 1980’s that sleep medicine was recognized as a specialty by the American Medical Association (AMA). In this time, we have learned a lot about vari- ous aspects of human sleep cycles and the


stages that make up our sleep. There is still much to learn as we take this new medical discipline into the 21st century. So, what do we know thus far? Sleep is a function of the human body as essen- tial as breathing. It is a complex process that changes to fit our needs throughout our life; babies will spend most of the day sleeping and in a proportion of sleep stag- es completely different from an adult. Sim- ilarly, the elderly will tend to sleep less and


10 Interesting Facts About Sleep


Most adults need an average of


seven to nine hours of sleep each night


‘Good night


sleep tight’ comes from


Shakespearian times when your mattress was secured by ropes—tying the ropes tighter


made your mattress firmer


A bath makes you sleepy because your


body’s core


Visit / sleeptoliveinstitute.com 32 Sleep Retailer / Fall 2015


temperature drops upon you getting out


Teenagers need at least eight and half to nine and


a quarter hours of sleep each night—but their internal


biological clocks can keep them awake later in the


evening and interfere with waking in the morning


Studies have shown that fragmented sleep can lower your


metabolism and increase your levels of the hormone


cortisol—which can result in an increased appetite and


decreased ability to burn calories


You burn


more calories sleeping than watching TV


with varying amounts of sleep stages than those seen in younger adults. The sleep and wake cycle that we move through every day is mediated by a process called the circadian rhythm. This process picks up cues (called zeitgebers) from external stimuli, of which the primary one is daylight. The zeitge- bers move the circadian rhythm through phases on a roughly 24-hour schedule. The phases are marked by hormone releases such as mel- atonin and core body temperature changes.


You have an average of about six sleep over 50


Even in REM periods, one of


deepest stages of sleep, you can still wake up


the when you hear your own


name called out A snail can sleep for


three years straight


You have an average of


five dreams per every


eight hours you sleep


position changes per night, but smaller movements can total


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