SLEEP
REM Sleep
Why is REM sleep called paradoxical sleep? It is because you are paralyzed. Your brain is extremely active during REM sleep so this paralysis is something that is essential for us to keep us from acting out these activities.
Consolidation
We consolidate our memories during our sleep. The brain is exercising pathways that were underused during the day. If you don't get adequate REM then you will mess up your cognition which means you will not learn or remember things as well.
Limbic System & Dreaming
The limbic system is active during REM sleep which contributes to our dreams being full of emotional content. The prefrontal cortex is inactive during sleep which contributes to the impracticality of dream content.
Sleep Deprivation: Stress
Sleep deprivation is a stressor. Delta sleep factor is a corticotropin inhibiting hormone which means that CIH inhibits glucocorticoids or CRF. When you have elevated glucocorticoid levels you sleep onset will be disrupted and it will also disrupt energy restoration in your brain. This creates a vicious cycle of stress decreasing sleep and lack of sleep making it you feel more stress (this contributes to insomnia). Anticipating poor sleep increases glucocorticoids.
AGING
As humans we have this idea that as we get older we just naturally get more fragile. However, many species do not age and throughout their life they have about the same amount of health and then they die. But mammals seem to have a more obvious aging process. Why does this happen?
As humans we are very adaptive in our earlier ages. But this adaptation often has a cost associated with it which makes us much more susceptible to disease later in life.
No Free Lunch Hypothesis
This is basically the idea that evolutionarily, to propagate our genes, we are very adaptive to change in the early stages of our life but eventually we pay the bill by aging later in life. Negative pleiotropy is the notion that a genetic trait give you advantages earlier in life at the cost of disadvantages later on.
Stress
Aging is a time of life when organisms don't deal with stress very well. Mistakes are made in copying DNA with creation of new cells which happens frequently. Lots of stress through the lifetime can accelerate the aging process. So what you see is that lack of stress can cause the body itself can act as a stressor. Just being alive is stressful for mammals.
In humans glucocorticoids levels stay about the same until extreme old age and then rises with age. They have found that the amount of glucocorticoids released during stress does not change with age and the recovery time from stress increases.
Biological Processes
Neurogenesis in hippocampus decreases with aging. They have also found that if you give someone an anti-cortisol pill then their hippocampus will improve. It will increase neurogenesis in the hippocampus to help fight against the decrease in neurogenesis caused by aging.
REM Sleep
Why is REM sleep called paradoxical sleep? It is because you are paralyzed. Your brain is extremely active during REM sleep so this paralysis is something that is essential for us to keep us from acting out these activities.
Consolidation
We consolidate our memories during our sleep. The brain is exercising pathways that were underused during the day. If you don't get adequate REM then you will mess up your cognition which means you will not learn or remember things as well.
Limbic System & Dreaming
The limbic system is active during REM sleep which contributes to our dreams being full of emotional content. The prefrontal cortex is inactive during sleep which contributes to the impracticality of dream content.
Sleep Deprivation: Stress
Sleep deprivation is a stressor. Delta sleep factor is a corticotropin inhibiting hormone which means that CIH inhibits glucocorticoids or CRF. When you have elevated glucocorticoid levels you sleep onset will be disrupted and it will also disrupt energy restoration in your brain. This creates a vicious cycle of stress decreasing sleep and lack of sleep making it you feel more stress (this contributes to insomnia). Anticipating poor sleep increases glucocorticoids.
AGING
As humans we have this idea that as we get older we just naturally get more fragile. However, many species do not age and throughout their life they have about the same amount of health and then they die. But mammals seem to have a more obvious aging process. Why does this happen?
As humans we are very adaptive in our earlier ages. But this adaptation often has a cost associated with it which makes us much more susceptible to disease later in life.
No Free Lunch Hypothesis
This is basically the idea that evolutionarily, to propagate our genes, we are very adaptive to change in the early stages of our life but eventually we pay the bill by aging later in life. Negative pleiotropy is the notion that a genetic trait give you advantages earlier in life at the cost of disadvantages later on.
Stress
Aging is a time of life when organisms don't deal with stress very well. Mistakes are made in copying DNA with creation of new cells which happens frequently. Lots of stress through the lifetime can accelerate the aging process. So what you see is that lack of stress can cause the body itself can act as a stressor. Just being alive is stressful for mammals.
In humans glucocorticoids levels stay about the same until extreme old age and then rises with age. They have found that the amount of glucocorticoids released during stress does not change with age and the recovery time from stress increases.
Biological Processes
Neurogenesis in hippocampus decreases with aging. They have also found that if you give someone an anti-cortisol pill then their hippocampus will improve. It will increase neurogenesis in the hippocampus to help fight against the decrease in neurogenesis caused by aging.
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