INTRODUCTION As children go through the transition from childhood to adolescence, many shifts occur in sleep/wake patterns related to intrinsic and extrinsic developmental changes. These shifts have been shown to result in corresponding shifts in sleep phase (later sleep onset) and sleep deprivation among teenagers in Western societies. However, the effect of these developmental changes on the ...

Sleep loss is both common and critically relevant to our society and might lead to the abuse of psychostimulants such as amphetamines, cocaine and modafinil. Since psychoactive substance abuse often occurs within a scenario of sleep deficit, the purpose of this investigation was to compare the sleep patterns of rats challenged with cocaine (7 mg/kg, ip), methamphetamine (7 mg/kg, ip), or modafi...

Individual differences in sleep patterns of children may have developmental origins. In the present study, two factors known to influence behavioural development, monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) genotype and prenatal Fe-deficient (ID) diet, were examined for their influences on sleep patterns in juvenile rhesus monkeys. Sleep patterns were assessed based on a threshold for inactivity as recorded by ...

The purpose of this study was to characterize the recovery pattern of sleep following simulated, four successive night shifts in ten healthy men (22.9 + or - 3.2 yr). Poor sleep was defined as sleep efficiency of 80% or lower as determined actigraphically. The results showed that four (rapid, slow, pseudo, and incomplete) patterns of sleep recovery were observed over three recovery sleep period...

The average adult sleeps 7.5 to 8 hours every night. Although the function of sleep is unknown, abundant evidence demonstrates that lack of sleep can have serious consequences, including increased risk of depressive disorders, impaired breathing, and heart disease. In addition, excessive daytime sleepiness resulting from sleep disturbance is associated with memory deficits, impaired social and ...

Transition patterns between different sleep stages are analysed in terms of probability distributions of symbolic sequences for young and old subjects with and without sleep disorder. Changes of these patterns due to ageing are compared with variations of transition probabilities due to sleep disorder.

Over the past four decades, scientists have made substantial progress in understanding the evolution of sleep patterns across the Tree of Life. Remarkably, the specifics of sleep along the human lineage have been slow to emerge. This is surprising, given our unique mental and behavioral capacity and the importance of sleep for individual cognitive performance. One view is that our species' slee...

Although mammals of different species have different sleep patterns, brief sleep-wake transitions commonly are observed across species and appear to occur randomly throughout the sleeping period. The dynamical patterns and functions of these brief awakenings from sleep are not well understood, and they often are viewed as disruptions (random or pathologic) of the sleep process. In this article,...