AP psych sleep practice Essay examples

Submitted By lightforda
Words: 378
Pages: 2

Sleep
By: Alyssa

There are 5 stages of sleep and different things occur in each stage. Stage 1 is the early stage of sleep. This transition involves slow breathing and irregular brain waves. During stage 1 you may experience hallucinations, such as a sensation of falling. This stage lasts about 5-10 minutes. In stage 2 the heart rate begins to slow down and rhythmic brain waves occur, also known as sleeping spindles. This stage will last about 20 minutes. Stage 3 is where delta waves begin to occur and you start to transition into a deep sleep, this is about 20 minutes as well. Stage 4 is approximately 30 minutes, most things such as sleep walking or bedwetting occur in this stage. Your brain releases slow delta waves. Now the REM sleep occurs about an hour after you fall asleep. This is a deep sleep where most people have dreams. This stage involves rapid eye movement and increased brain activity.
Different age groups have different amounts of sleep needed for their body to function properly. Researchers found that newborns need 12-18, infants need 14-15, toddlers need 12-14, preschoolers need 11-13, pre-teens need 10-11, teens need 8-9, and adults’ need 7-9. There are many different types of sleep disorders and many studies of them. Insomnia is one of them; this is the inability to sleep when anxious or excited. Many people may think they have this disease because it is easier to think you did not sleep as much because all you remember is being awake. Another sleep disorder would be narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is uncontrollable sleep attacks.