2011

Restoration Theory

Lecture Eight

By the end of this session you will be able to…

Identify the changes in sleep across the lifespan

Describe at least one piece or research relating to lifespan changes in sleep

What is your own experience of sleep?

See hand out

Premature babies’ EEGs are not valid as not in utero

Okai (1992) Studied REM and NREM sleep in unborn babies of 30 pregnant women

REM phases could be identified by 32 weeks

This correlates with development of neural structures in the brain known to be responsible for sleep stages.

New-borns spend about 17 hours a day sleeping. About 50% in REM sleep.Sleep is interrupted every 3-4hours

By 6 months babies sleep longerSleep periods extend to about 6hrs and

tend to be more associated with night timeMay be influenced by parents

By 12 monthsTotal sleep has

declined to about 13 hours (Sheldon 1996)

REM sleep has decreased to 4-5 hours

2-3 yearsDay time naps still

common

Armitage (2009) found that babies of depressed mothers took longer to fall asleep than those of other mothers. Also, they had more sleep episodes during the day.

Mechanism unclear but thought to be linked to maternal hormones and/or genetics.

Baird (2009) found that risk of waking at night was associated with maternal depression prior to the pregnancy.

From age 5 to adolescence total sleep declines.

Younger children sleep deeply at the start of the evening (SWS) before usual cycles start.

Pre-teens tend to wake refreshed from sleep.

Social pressures such as reduced parental influence and staying up later.

Crowley (2007) showed that adolescent sleep patterns vary with the school year.Circadium rhythms reset on school Mondays

result in jet-lag.

Carskadon (1998) found A grade 16-18yr olds slept an average of an hour a day longer than other students.

Sleep time and structure both change during adulthood.

Redline (2004) meta analysisAs we age

Total sleep decreases Time to get to sleep increases Night time wakings increases Feeling refreshed on waking increases Feeling sleepy in the day increases Daytime naps increase

Object measurements

Reporting difficulties

Methodological problems

External factors and co-sleep

Individual differences

Operationalisation of sleep

Cultural traditions

Fill in the boxes on the hand out.

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Infa

ncy

Childho

od

Adolesc

ence

Adulth

ood

Old A

ge

Life Stage

Num

ber o

f Hours

Amount ofSleep

Review of sleep so far

HW: Organise your folders so far, and bring in for next session.