The Neuroscience Of Sleep

Sleep is the natural state of bodily rest, common to all mammals and birds and also seen in many reptiles, amphibians and fish. For most species, regular sleep is essential for survival, yet the specific purposes of sleep are still only partly clear and are the subject of intense research. This volume is comprised of the editors’ selection of the most relevant articles on sleep from the Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, resulting in the first comprehensive collection of introductory articles on the neuroscience of sleep. Articles explore sleep’s impact on neural functioning, sleep disorders, the relation between sleep and other clinical disorders, a look at sleep from a developmental perspective, and more. * Chapters offer impressive scope with topics addressing neural functioning, disorders, development, and more, carefully selected by one of the most preeminent sleep researchers * Richly illustrated in full color with over 100 figures * Contributors represent the most outstanding scholarship in the field, with each chapter providing fully vetted and reliable expert knowledge

The Neuroscience of Sleep and Dreams provides comprehensive coverage of the basic neuroscience of both sleep and dreams for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students. It details new scientific discoveries, places those discoveries within evolutionary context, and links established findings with implications for sleep medicine. This second edition focuses on recent developments in the social nature of sleep and dreams. Coverage includes the neuroscience of all stages of sleep; the lifespan development of these sleep stages; the role of non-REM and REM sleep in health and mental health; comparative sleep; biological rhythms; sleep disorders; sleep memory; dream content; dream phenomenology, and dream functions. Students, scientists, and interested non-specialists will find this book accessible and informative.

A renowned neurologist shares the true stories of people unable to get a good night’s rest in The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep, a fascinating exploration of the symptoms and syndromes behind sleep disorders. For Dr. Guy Leschziner’s patients, there is no rest for the weary in mind and body. Insomnia, narcolepsy, night terrors, apnea, and sleepwalking are just a sampling of conditions afflicting sufferers who cannot sleep—and their experiences in trying are the stuff of nightmares. Demoniac hallucinations frighten people into paralysis. Restless legs rock both the sleepless and their sleeping partners with unpredictable and uncontrollable kicking. Out-of-sync circadian rhythms confuse the natural body clock’s days and nights. Then there are the extreme cases. A woman in a state of deep sleep who gets dressed, unlocks her car, and drives for several miles before returning to bed. The man who has spent decades cleaning out kitchens while “sleep-eating.” The teenager prone to the serious, yet unfortunately nicknamed Sleeping Beauty Syndrome stuck in a cycle of excessive unconsciousness, binge eating, and uncharacteristic displays of aggression and hypersexuality while awake. With compassionate stories of his patients and their conditions, Dr. Leschziner illustrates the neuroscience behind our sleeping minds, revealing the many biological and psychological factors necessary in getting the rest that will not only maintain our physical and mental health, but improve our cognitive abilities and overall happiness.

"Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity ... An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now ... neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming"--Amazon.com.

When Henry Nicholls was twenty-one, he was diagnosed with narcolepsy: a medical disorder causing him to fall asleep with no warning. For the healthy but overworked majority, this might sound like an enviable condition, but for Henry, the inability to stay awake is profoundly disabling, especially as it is accompanied by mysterious collapses called cataplexy, poor night-time sleep, hallucinations and sleep paralysis. A writer and biologist, Nicholls explores the science of disordered sleep, discovering that around half of us will experience some kind of sleep dysfunction in our lives. From a CBT course to tackle insomnia to a colony of narcoleptic Dobermans, his journey takes him through the half-lit world of sleep to genuine revelations about his own life and health. Told with humour and intelligence, Sleepyhead uses personal reflections, interviews with those with sleep disorders and the people who study them, anecdotes from medical history and insights from art and literature to change the way we understand our sleeping hours.

This practical text provides knowledge of the basic neuroscience of sleep and sleep disorders as they interrelate with various neurologic conditions. Chapters in the first section cover neural networks involved in normal sleep processes, including dreams and memory. Also discussed are how these neural networks interact in various sleep stages and sleep disorders, such as sleep related movement disorders. The book's second section explores the pathophysiology of sleep disorders in the spectrum of neurologic conditions in both adults and children. This includes sleep changes in patients with dementia, seizures, headaches, and stroke, and other common neurologic disorders. Sleep Neurology fills an important gap in the sleep medicine literature by providing the underpinnings of sleep disorders and will be of great value to students, residents, and clinicians.

This book reviews current knowledge on the importance of sleep for brain function, from molecular mechanisms to behavioral output, with special emphasis on the question of how sleep and sleep loss ultimately affect cognition and mood. It provides an extensive overview of the latest insights in the role of sleep in regulating gene expression, synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis and how that in turn is linked to learning and memory processes. In addition, readers will learn about the potential clinical implications of insufficient sleep and discover how chronically restricted or disrupted sleep may contribute to age-related cognitive decline and the development of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. The book consists of 19 chapters, written by experts in basic sleep research and sleep medicine, which together cover a wide range of topics on the importance of sleep and consequences of sleep disruption. This book will be of interest to students, researchers and clinicians with a general interest in brain function or a specific interest in sleep.

The orexin system, discovered in 1998, has emerged as a crucial player in regulating the sleep and wake balance inside our brain. This discovery has sparked a burst of novel and dynamic research on the physiology and pathology of sleep. The Orexin System: Basic Science and Role in Sleep Pathology honors this research and the authors share their ideas and perspectives on the novel developments within the field. The book examines the intricate role of the orexin system in regulating sleep and wake, and its interaction with other wake-regulating systems. The orexin system is dissected at the cellular and molecular level to explore the diversity of the orexin-producing neurons, their projections, and their signaling pathways. Additionally, the book discusses the diseases which are associated with a dysfunctional orexin system, such as narcolepsy, insomnia, substance abuse, and Alzheimer’s disease, and explores the new potential therapeutic applications derived from the burst of research around this fascinating system. This publication is essential reading for neurobiologists, neurologists, psychopharmacologists, sleep researchers, and other researchers and clinical scientists interested in sleep, sleep research, insomnia, and medicine in general.