Studying Sleep's Profound and Extensive Effects on Brain Function

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Summary: Sleep has been proven to help a person's function, but still 1/3 of the U.S. adult population does not get the proper amount of sleep. The brain can be harmed if it does not get the proper amount of sleep proven by recent studies. When a person gets the appropriate amount of sleep he/she has better cognitive function and enhances memory, while a person who doesn't get the appropriate amount of sleep can have impaired memory/judgement and have other heath issues (i.e. obesity). MicroRNA has helped show what lack of sleep can do to both rats and humans. Three species of spiders are defying how the lack of sleep effects their brains because of their fast circadian clocks. The article also suggests that during sleep negative memories can be brought up, which is prioritizing the retention of the negative memory. Overall, sleep is a lot more complicated than the average person thinks and it is critical that a person gets the appropriate amount of sleep.

 Connection: The brain has a strong connection with psychology, especially physiological psychology. Brain function can be effected by the amount of sleep a person obtains, which was also emphasized in the previous reading about Brain Rules by John Madina. Without the appropriate amount of sleep a person can be strongly effected both physically and mentally. Psychology dealing with the brain can be an easy aspect to study on any topic, especially when it comes to sleep because it can be monitored in different ways. In class we've talked about sleep in different ways. Serotonin is involved in sleep and mood, which can help a study of sleep on brain. Since sleep is critical, a person should assure he/she monitors his/her sleep and can help prevent impaired memory/judgement and health issues, which can cause more problems later in life.

Article Obtained at: http://neurosciencenews.com/sleep-brain-function-7927/

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 14, 2017 at 7:19 PM

    Sleep is extremely important. This topic reminds me of the NASA study John Medina referred to in the "Brain Rules" book you mentioned.NASA's study found that a short swenty-six minute nap could help improve their pilots performance. It is very important for individuals not to neglect sleep. A quick nap could help people who are not getting enough sleep at night to give their brain time to rest. This topic reminds me of the conversation we had in a previous class about how your brain cleans itself during sleep.

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  2. Amy KirkendallNovember 14, 2017 at 7:49 PM

    I strongly agree with your statement, "it is critical that a person gets the appropriate amount of sleep". This topic was discussed near the beginning of the semester when learning the anatomy of the brain. A connection between your article and a class topic is that when a person does not get the right amount of sleep, it can be harmful to their body. It was discussed in class that the ventricles act as a waste management system. Meaning, when a person sleeps, their brain is cleaning itself and removing toxins. I agree with you in the sense that many adults would benefit from that information and possibly change their sleeping habits for the better,

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  3. Laura BrownholtzNovember 16, 2017 at 11:57 AM

    I really enjoyed this article because sleep is such an important thing to having us function at our bests. In my cognitive psychology class we recently discussed the importance of sleep when preparing for tests and exams. As someone who has frequently spent the night before an exam cramming it was very insightful to learn the importance of sleep on our memory retrieval and cognitive functioning.

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