Blame Tired Brain Cells for Mental Lapses After Poor Sleep
Article Summary: The article Blame Tired Brain Cells for Mental Lapses After Poor Sleep explains reasons why the brain struggles when sleep deprived. Researchers at UCLA conducted a study on patients who suffer from seizures. These patients have electrodes implanted in their brains because they are told to stay awake all night, which can speed up the onset of epileptic episode because lack of sleep can cause them. In this study, it was discovered that sleep deprivation depletes the ability for brain cells to communicate with each other, which can then affect memory and visual perception. Neurons are unable to function properly because they are not able to regenerate and "clean" themselves, due to a lack of sleep. Neurons fire much slower than those of a well rested brain and respond much slower too. This can make it harder for neurons to encode information as well. The researchers at UCLA were able to conclude that this was all true because of the brain activity their patients exhibited after sleep deprivation. They discovered that slow sleep like waves disrupted the patients brains activity and performances on tasks (Neuroscience News, 2017).
Connection to Physiological Psychology: In the book that our class was assigned, Brain Rules by John Medina, he briefly discusses why it is very important to obtain an adequate amount of sleep. He talks about when the brain is asleep, it basically gives itself a bath and washes away unnecessary plaque that has built up over the day. It is also important because sleep "replays" memories formed from the previous day, deciding what should be kept in the brain and what is not needed. So, as stated in this article a lack of sleep makes it harder for the brain to encode information, which is a reason why people who lack sleep might have a difficult time remembering information. It is obvious that sleep deprivation can cause many problems for people and their overall brain function.
References Link:
http://neurosciencenews.com/poor-sleep-mental-lapses-7885/
Connection to Physiological Psychology: In the book that our class was assigned, Brain Rules by John Medina, he briefly discusses why it is very important to obtain an adequate amount of sleep. He talks about when the brain is asleep, it basically gives itself a bath and washes away unnecessary plaque that has built up over the day. It is also important because sleep "replays" memories formed from the previous day, deciding what should be kept in the brain and what is not needed. So, as stated in this article a lack of sleep makes it harder for the brain to encode information, which is a reason why people who lack sleep might have a difficult time remembering information. It is obvious that sleep deprivation can cause many problems for people and their overall brain function.
References Link:
http://neurosciencenews.com/poor-sleep-mental-lapses-7885/
This issue with people not getting enough sleep comes from the belief that the consequences do not apply to them. In my psychology of learning course we discussed how people are not likely to believe that a punishment or consequence is favorable to them, thus continuing a behavior (such as texting and driving causing an accident). This seems to be the same thing for people with sleep—they do not see the detrimental consequences of not getting enough sleep. What is most interesting is that there are multiple articles that compare consequences of sleep deprivation to the effects of alcohol consumption. People are very familiar with how alcohol impacts the body and make choices on their consumption but tend to ignore their need for sleep. There is some support as to what happens to the brain when it is sleep deprived, however, due to ethical reasons, there is no concrete evidence of the long term effects which may be a reason why people do not take sleeping as an important thing to do.
ReplyDeleteWow, interesting article. I did not know that the lack of sleep can cause seizures and epileptic episodes. I knew sleep is important but I did not know the lack of sleep effects our body that much. It is interesting because I know a few people in college who thinks it is okay to stay up all night to study for an exam. I have not had a good amount of sleep in the passed few days but after seeing this article, I will definitely make sure to get a good amount of sleep. I can not continue to ruin my body.
ReplyDeleteI believe that adequate sleep is necessary, as clearly demonstrated by this post. Society pushes for people to be working for many, many hours a day, and most people don't get the proper sleep they need. Sleep allows the brain to sort through what's needed and what is not. On the other hand, excessive sleep can cause problems as well and it is associated with a higher risk for Alzheimer's/ dementia. I believe this is because oversleeping causes the necessary brain cells to die off simply because of lack of use! I'm certain it's much more complicated than this.
ReplyDeleteAdrianna, this article was especially interesting to me because I had a seizure when I was younger due to lack of sleep. When I tell people that they usually tell me that they didn't know this was even a possibility and that seizures only occur due to things such as flashing lights. This also reminds me of our Brain Rules assignment because the Brain Rules textbook discusses how sleep has a major effect on memory and how well our brain and memories function if we don't get enough sleep. Visual Perception and Memory are also key points that we have learned about throughout this semester in Physiological Psychology.
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