- There are two theories of sleep, adaptive and restorative. The adaptive theory states that each organism has different sleep patterns based on their lifestyles. Organisms, including both humans and animals have adapted to sleep during periods of time when wakefulness would be the most hazardous. Based on this theory one would expect prey animals to sleep mostly at night and for shorter periods of time than predator animals. For example, grazing animals are more vulnerable when they sleep and therefore sleep very little. In contrast predators sleep during the daytime and as much as they want. Predators are not vulnerable when they sleep. These animals sleep significantly more allowing them to conserve energy to then use for hunting. Nocturnal animals sleep during the day and are active at night. Humans are most vulnerable when they sleep, especially during stages three and four when we are physiologically not aware of our environment.
The restorative theory states that sleep is necessary for the restoration of the physical health of the body. Sleep enables the body to recover from the daily activities, and stress it endures. This is the time for the cells and tissues to repair themselves. Sleep is important to the growth and development of the body, especially that of infants and children. Most growth happens during the deep sleep of a child’s sleep cycle. There are two different types of sleep: NREM sleep which handles physiological restoration and REM sleep which handles cognitive restoration. According to Ciccarelli and White, a person who has had a very physically demanding day will spend more time in NREM, deep sleep, while a person who had an emotionally stressful day will spend more time in REM sleep. This is because the person in NREM will need to restore the physical body of the extraneous activity, while the person who is emotionally stressed will need to restore the brain and might find themselves dreaming about the stress related issues.
I personally prefer the restorative theory over the adaptive theory. It is especially important to have a good night’s sleep to function well. It is always recommended that students have a good night’s sleep before a test. Lack of sleep or sleep deprivation affects your ability to concentrate and sometimes even your ability to do simple tasks. This can lead to bigger issues such as irritability, trembling hands and even depression. It can also lead to health issues such as diabetes and obesity. It is important to allow the body and the brain to restore from the daily activities. This is especially true when you are ill, and the body needs to restore itself. Another example of when and why sleep is important is newborn babies. Newborn babies have a significant higher REM sleep. They spend about 50% of their sleep in REM. Also, people who have had brain injury need plenty of REM sleep. REM sleep will allow the brain to restore itself and get rid of toxins. The average recommended hours of sleep for an adult are between 7-9 hours a day.
- I've learned that sleep can be broken down into two theories, one being called adaptive theory and the other one called restorative theory. The adaptive sleep theory can be described as a theory of sleep proposing that animals and humans evolved sleep patterns to avoid predators by sleeping when predators are most active (2020). Meaning to avoid being attacked or targeted by predators it would be wise for prey to sleep during prime hours of hunting. An example of this would be how a gazelle (prey) will sleep four hours a day, while a lion (predator) will sleep fifteen hours a day. During the time the lion is sleeping the gazelle is able to roam around freely without worrying as much about being attacked. What I found interesting was a lion who does not have many predators can sleep for longer periods of time without worry while a gazelle has to be on constant look out and precaution since it is the prey.
While the restorative theory has been described as theory of sleep proposing that sleep is necessary to the physical health of the body and serves to replenish chemicals and repair cellular damage (2020). This means that sleep is vital to our physical health and without it we would not be able to function and restore our bodies. I personally believe sleep is important because without it so many mishaps can occur and take place because of functioning while being tired.
I prefer restorative theory because I am a big advocate for sleep. While working in the hospital I have seen many mishaps and errors that can easily have been fixed if the person was not tired. I know personally when I am tired I do not function well and study for exams or even retain information that seems impossible to understand. Our bodies need sleep in order to properly function and when we treat our bodies well the return is substantially better for us and those around us. If we were to always live by the adaptive theory I think, we would be too tired and always stressed and worried about what will happen if we rest for "too long".
- According to Ciccarelli and White (2020), Sleep has an influence on various physiological systems, thus it's likely that it happens for a variety of reasons. Sleep is thought to fulfill a variety of physiological and psychological functions, including the removal of brain poisons and the consolidation of knowledge into memory. Sleeping patterns tend to follow a pretty predictable pattern, and experts believe that sleep is critical for good health and well-being. A variety of ideas have been presented to explain the importance of sleep, as well as its functions and goals.
Sleep is necessary for rejuvenating and repairing the physiological processes that keep the body and mind healthy and working correctly, according to the repair and restoration hypothesis of sleep. The accelerated elimination of potentially neurotoxic waste products that build in the awake central nervous system might be the reason for sleep's restorative role. According to the restorative idea, sleep permits the body to repair and replenish cellular components that are depleted throughout the day (Ciccarelli & White, 2020).
Periods of activity and inactivity evolved as a technique of preserving energy, according to evolutionary theory, commonly known as the adaptive hypothesis of sleep. According to this theory, all animals have evolved to sleep during times when being awake would be dangerous (Ciccarelli & White, 2020). This notion is based on comparative studies of many animal species. Bears and lions, for example, sleep between 12 and 15 hours a day since they have few natural predators. Animals with a lot of natural predators, on the other hand, only receive a few hours of sleep each day, generally no more than 4 or 5 hours.