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Dement's book does not have any real references, but on p 257 he discusses a study by Tom Roth and Tim Roehrs where paired subjects were awakened when one of th
by lutorm 17y ago
Dement's book does not have any real references, but on p 257 he discusses a study by Tom Roth and Tim Roehrs where paired subjects were awakened when one of them entered REM sleep. The pairs thus had identical sleep disturbances and were different only in whether they were woken up in REM sleep or not. He says
"The results were striking. The daytime sleep tendency did not change in the REM sleep-deprived group ... whereas the yoked control group (which lost much more non-REM sleep) became significantly sleepier in the daytime."
To be fair, he then goes on with some cautionary notes about the small numbers of the study and how some older studies had not found a difference. There was no mention of studies finding the opposite, though.
- dcurtis 17y agoYeah, there appears to be very little hard research on the subject, but my personal experience from reading neuroscience journals has led me to the understanding that REM sleep removes tiredness. In fact, people with REM sleep behavior disorder -- that is, people who naturally do not go into REM sleep normally, and when they do, they have odd physical behaviors -- complain of chronic tiredness and sometimes end up with serious mental disorders. The other phases of sleep are even less understood than REM, so I am going to trust my instinct and go with the real research that has been published on polyphasic sleep.
- dave_au 17y agoIIRC, Counting Sheep by Paul Martin has some references in this area. I'll try to dig them up later.
- jwecker 17y ago"Why We Nap" - Stampi - next to impossible to find. It coined the word polyphasic (and monophasic) sleep. It's exploratory, but pretty good science. It's basically a study of solo sail-boat racers- long distance. They have to get little naps in, but they have to stay awake enough to take advantage of wind and water currents for days and days. Other than that, at least last time I checked a year or two ago, all sleep scientists had written it off as "sleep deprivation" which they feel they already have a good handle on (it's evil), and therefore they are very disinterested in actually studying it.
- VinzO 17y agoyou can download the pdf version of "why we nap" here if you suscribe : http://www.sleepwarrior.com/why-we-nap-claudio-stampi-pdf http://www.sleepwarrior.com/why-we-nap-claudio-stampi-pdf