Discuss two theories of sleep.

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Discuss two theories of sleep.

One theory of sleep is that it is needed for physical and psychological restoration and repair. Oswald 1966 said that sleep was needed for the restoration of cells and to restore energy levels. If Oswald’s theory were true then you would expect sleep deprivation to have serious consequences, as the body would be unable to repair its self. You would also expect more sleep to be needed if more physical energy had been used. Oswald’s study is supported by Rechtschaffen study on rat, as all the rats died after 33 days of sleep deprivation. Jouvet’s study also supports this theory as the cats died when deprived of REM sleep. Although there is also evidence that goes against Oswald’s theory, for example Randy Gardener went for 264 hours with out sleep, he suffered very few side effects and only needed an extra 7 hours of sleep to recover from his sleep deprivation. Another theory that goes against Oswald’s theory is Ryback and Lewis 1971 would studied healthy people who spent 6 weeks in bed resting, he found that their sleeping habits didn’t change, they still needed the same amount of sleep. Horne and Minard also found evidence that went against Oswald’s restoration and repair theory. They exhausted participants to see if they slept for longer, they found that they slept for the same amount of time but went to sleep faster.

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        Oswald also suggested that SWS sleep was most important in restoration and repair. He found that during stage 4 of sleep, tissue growth, protein synthesis and the formation of red blood cells occur due to the release of a hormone from the pituitary gland. Research on infants (brain grows very fast) found that they spend most of time a sleep in REM sleep. Although protein synthesis is said to take place during SWS and REM sleep protein is need and protein only lasts around 4 hours in the body.

        Sleep is also said to help physical restoration Hartmann 1973 ...

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