Laura and Amy’s Sleepover

A Story About Sleep and Dreams

Laura and Amy are having a sleepover. They are very excited because the next day they are going to be in a dance recital.Laura’s mom tells the girls that it is very important for them to get a good night sleep because they will be getting up early.

At first, the girls are too excited to sleep, and they start talking about the recital tomorrow. But soon, the two of them start to get sleepy. One primary reason why the girls are getting sleepy is because of circadian rhythms. These rhythms are controlled by the body’s biological clock known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus. This nucleus receives signals from the retina to know when it is light or dark- this is how our bodies link to the cycle of the outside world.

Since Laura and Amy’s bodies are linked to the light/ dark cycle of the outside world, they become more tired at night when it is dark out.

The pineal gland receives messages from the suprachiasmatic nucleus as to whether or not it is dark or light outside. If it is dark out, the pineal gland produces melatonin, if it is light then it stops production of melatonin.

Another reason Laura and Amy are beginning to feel tired is because different chemicals are being released in their brains, which make them tired. When it is dark outside, the pineal gland, another important part of the brain involved with sleep, produces a natural chemical called melatonin, which promotes sleep.

Another chemical that is produced in our bodies that promotes sleep is a compound called adenosine. As we are awake, levels of adenosine rise in our bodies. This rise signals a shift towards sleep and when we are sleeping, our bodies break down the adenosine.

Laura begins to enter stage one sleep, where she is drifting in and out of sleep and can be awakened easily. She later moves to stage 2 and stage 3 sleep. Amy however finds that she not quite so tired yet and decides to pull out her book and read.

During light sleep, our muscles become very relaxed and our eye movements slow.

In stage 2 sleep, eye movement stop and our brain waves become slower. As we enter stage 3, we start to see an appearance of delta waves. These are extremely slow brain waves that are interspersed with smaller, faster waves.

Amy is still reading well into the night while Laura begins to enter into deep sleep. Deep sleep begins to occur during stage 3 and then progresses through stage 4. During stage 4, we only see the appearance of delta waves. There is no eye movement or muscle activity. People who are woken up from deep sleep feel groggy and might be disoriented for a bit.

It is very very late when Amy finally stops reading and drifts into stage one and two sleep. At this point in the night, Laura is beginning to enter the REM stage, or rapid eye movement. The average sleep cycle lasts for about 90 minutes, so throughout the course of a night, Laura will experience REM sleep a few times.

During REM sleep, our breathing becomes more rapid, our limbs are temporarily paralyzed and our eyes move rapidly. REM sleep occurs 70 to 90 minutes after we fall asleep, at the end of each sleep cycle. By morning we are mostly in REM sleep, which is why we remember most of our dreams when we wake up.

Laura begins to have a dream about the ballet recital the next day. She pictures herself dancing around on stage with the crowd cheering. If it wasn’t for the pons, which sends signals to the spinal cord telling it to shut off neurons that control movement, Laura might actually begin to act out her dream.

REM sleep is the stage of sleep where most people record remembering dreams therefore scientist conclude that it is during REM sleep that we experience dreams.

The next morning, the two girls wake up bright and early in order to get ready for the recital. Laura wakes right up and is feeling fresh and ready. Amy on the other hand is groggy and tired when she wakes up. Laura asks her how much sleep she got and Amy thinks it was probably under six hours.

The average adult requires 7 to 8 hours of sleep while the average teenager needs about 9 hours. Getting 6 hours or less can be very harmful to the brain and the body.

Laura tells Amy and her mom all about her dream while they are getting ready. She wants to know if it actually means something! Her mom tells her that in an article she read the other day she found out that this was a big controversy in parts of the science world. Some scientists believe it is true while some think dreams are “mental non-sense” and don’t have any psychological meaning.

Some scientists do believe that dreams are useful in therapy because they do harbor clues to the psychological issues and earlier conflicts in a person’s life. There are many different doctors who believe in different ways to interpret people’s dreams.

The whole time the girls were getting ready, Amy was being very grumpy and quiet. She wasn’t being very attentive either, Laura’s mom had to ask her three times what she wanted for breakfast before she heard her and answered. Amy was beginning to feel the negative affects of sleep loss.

At the auditorium where they were performing, all the girls in the show were practicing on stage. Laura was so excited and as she practiced she remembered every step and every turn much better than she did at the dress rehearsal the day before. Amy on the other hand was forgetting some steps or was late on her turns, similar to how she was in dress rehearsal.

On crucial thing sleep loss affects is our memory. Sleep helps the brain consolidate learned experiences and it also helps the brain transform weak memories into more permanent fixtures- storing them in long- term memory. This explains why Laura remembers the dance better, while Amy showed no improvement.

Some other negative affects of sleep loss…- Can contribute to

symptoms of depression- Affects our skin- Affects out immune

system

This wouldn’t happen to Laura after a few times, but if she kept up a pattern of sleep loss, she could struggle with weight gain. Gaining weight and having trouble loosing weight is a significant side effect of not getting enough sleep. When we don’t get enough sleep, the production of leptin and ghrelin, two hormones that control appetite get screwed up. When we don’t get enough sleep, we produce less leptin. Leptin suppresses our appetite, letting us know when we are not hungry. It is usually produced in abundance a night. Oppositely, we produce more

ghrelin when we don’t get enough sleep. Ghrelin stimulates hunger and is also produced at night but in lesser amounts. When we don’t produce enough leptin, we are hungry more and crave carbohydrates such as dense, sweet and salty foods.

Despite everything, the show turned out to be fantastic and the two girls did a great job. Afterwards, they each went home and Amy took a nice long nap.