Physiology and Neurochemistry of Sleep

INTRODUCTION Human Physiology is the foundation upon which all courses related to the health professions build. Pharmacy students, in their eagerness to advance to the courses more specifically related to their field, may be impatient and want to give less attention to the basic sciences. However, pharmacy students must have a solid working knowledge of the human body and the ailments that befall it before they can begin to understand the effects of pharmaceuticals. In teaching physiology to pharmacy students, it is important to make the subject matter relevant to the student's lives. Finding examples which allow the students to reflect on their personal experiences is usually easy when teaching physiology. It is also important to relate subjects in physiology to other topics which are relevant to the study of pharmacy. To understand sleep, for example, the pharmacy student needs to consider concepts related to anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, pathophysiology, as well as neuroscience. Fortunately, students have years of first-hand experience observing their own sleep behaviors and can relate this experience to the classroom experience. The following is the summary of a lecture on sleep which is usually given to pharmacy students at the end of their first year in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Florida.