Sleep is an active physiological process, one in which your body is busy carrying out vital activities, while you are unconscious. While asleep your body alternates between two forms of sleep: rapid eye movement, or REM, and non-REM sleep. This...
Getting a quality amount of sleep each night is immeasurable. Hectic lifestyles, stress and medical conditions can contribute to poor sleep habits and disrupts your nights slumber on occasion. For some, difficulty in dealing with the day-to-day...
Creating better sleep habits is necessary for maintaining optimum health. While you sleep, your body increases cell production and reduces the breakdown of proteins. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) adds that...
Your child's sleep patterns will change dramatically as he matures into an adolescent. Rapid eye movement, or REM, is more prominent in newborns and they may even experience REM while they are awake--usually during an aroused state such as when...
Sleep is essential to life. It is during sleep that the mind packs away the day’s activity and processes memory. Loss of sleep can negatively impact not only your energy level, but also your mood, hormone level and long-term memory storage....
Sleep cycles through varying degrees of brain activity, consciousness and body movement. A sleep cycle consists of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and three stages of non-REM sleep. Non-REM sleep is gradually diminishing brain activity and less...
Narcolepsy affects one in 2,000 Americans. While sudden bouts of sleep and daytime sleepiness are common symptoms of narcolepsy, severity of the condition varies among individuals. No single cause or cure has been linked to narcolepsy--medication...
While sleep is vital for health and well-being, getting restful sleep is not always easy. Rapid eye movement, REM, is a necessary phase of the sleep cycle in which dreaming occurs. Ensuring what's commonly termed "a good night's sleep" requires,...
Antidepressants are prescribed by physicians to treat and manage depression. The newer generation of antidepressants, such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's) are more commonly prescribed for patients. All antidepressant drugs...
Fluoxetine is a prescription antidepressant drug commonly known by its brand name, Prozac. Fluoxetine belongs to a class of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. Fluoxetine and other SSRIs are highly effective...
Medically known as somnambulism, sleepwalking is a disorder that involves performing motor activities while asleep, including walking, eating, dressing or even driving. Because sleepwalkers enact these activities during deep slumber, they're...
Adenosine is a chemical in your brain and body that belongs to a class of substances called neurotransmitters. These substances support basic nervous system communication by carrying "messages" across the gaps between individual nerve cells....
If you are wondering whether your heart rate went up while you had that crazy dream last night, the simple answer is yes. In fact, whether you have a good dream or a bad dream, your heart and breathing rate always increase during a dream cycle....
A good night's sleep consists of five distinct and separate stages: Stages 1 through 4, then the REM stage. You move through these stages over and over again while you sleep in cycles that occur about five times a night. But the stages do not...
Weight loss can almost triple during the REM (rapid eye movement) cycle of sleep, according to pediatric sleep specialist, Dennis Rosen, M.D. This is due to a combination of elements including hormone production (ghrelin and leptin) during sleep...
The medical term for the 2- to 10-year period leading up to menopause is premenopause, or perimenopause. During this time, symptoms arise as the ovaries gradually stop producing estrogen and progesterone. While perimenopause can begin in a womans...
A good night's sleep is vital for proper brain function and provides a chance to rest and recharge your body. Helpguide, an online nonprofit health organization, reminds readers that deep sleep and REM sleep are the two most restorative phases of...
The old saying, "If you snooze, you lose," may not always be true after all. In fact, it may be good for your to enjoy a guilt-free siesta on a regular basis. The Mayo Clinic says a brief 10- to 20-minute nap can have restorative effects for...
Throughout your night's sleep, you transition through two sleep phases. These include rapid eye movement or REM sleep and non-REM sleep, according to KidsHealth.org. These cycles alternate every 90 minutes, and during REM sleep, you have the...
In your baby's first couple of weeks, getting sleep was something you could only daydream about. Now that your baby has reached her sixth week, though, her sleep and wake patterns may be starting to vaguely resemble the one you had before she was...
Practiced since ancient times in the Hindu and Buddhist religions, japa meditation differs from other meditation forms in that it involves repeating a mantra. While the true purpose of japa meditation is religious, it's also an effective way to...
Red wine is beneficial for decreasing your risks of lung cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's disease, plus it could help you fall asleep. People frequently ingest alcohol as a sleep aide. A survey published in "Sleep" in May 1999 found...
Sleep plays an important role in your baby's growth and development, according to Glade Curtis and Judith Schuler in "Your Baby's First Year." A baby's sleep patterns will continually change during his first year, and by one month, your baby is...
It is common for people with depression to experience various sleep disturbances including insomnia, poor sleep efficiency and perception of poor sleep quality. Although these problems are thought of frequently in conjunction with depression,...
While you're fast asleep at night, your brain is working furiously to process information and update your memory. This phenomenon occurs during the rapid eye movement -- or REM -- phase of sleep. REM sleep happens every 60 to 90 minutes during...
Although sleep needs vary with the individual, 6-week-old babies typically need 12 to 18 hours of sleep per day, according to the National Sleep Foundation. The challenge for parents is that a baby's sleep at this age may be divided nearly equally...
Sleep is a time for your 5-week-old baby to grow. Her brain, memory, body and learning are all developing during sleep. If she doesn't get enough sleep, she may become cranky and agitated, and even more serious, she may suffer stress or a...
Every new parent experiences anxiety about the ability to care for a newborn. Soon, you will realize that your baby is teaching you the basics through on-the-job-training and the rest comes from learning to trust your instincts. Unfortunately,...
According to "The Baby Sleep Book," written by Dr. Sears et al., babies and adults sleep differently. A baby sleeps less deeply, arouses more easily, has mostly REM sleep and needs nighttime feedings. These traits are thought to be "protective...
