Describe and Evaluate Lifespan Changes in Sleep

Describe and Evaluate Lifespan changes in Sleep As humans grow from infancy to old age there are major changes in the step and kind of snooze experienced. Babies log Zs a lot more than than children and adults too have assorted sleep courses and different stages of sleep. They god to sleep about 16 hours a day. But their sleep is not continuous. By the age of six months a circadian rhythm has become established (one main sleep arouse cycle). By the age of give, children have EEG patterns like those of adults but they are still sleeping more and having more REM activity.During childhood, it is not uncommon for children to experience a variety of sleep disorders such as sleep walking and wickedness terrors. During childhood, the need for sleep decrease, but in adolescence, it increases, to about nine of ten hours a night. Circadian rhythms in any case change so that teenagers feel naturally awake later at night and have more difficulty postureting up early (a phase delay). Ad ult sleep is typically about eight hours a night, with 25% REM sleep. Childhood parasomsineas are rarer in maturity but there is an increasing frequency of other sleep disorders, such as insomnia and apnoea.With increased age, the pattern of sleep changes REM sleep decreases to about 20% of total sleep time. Older people also experience a phase advance of circadian rhythms feeling sleepier early in the evening and vigilant up earlier. This approach to psychology is called the developmental approach and is important in highlighting the changes across a persons lifespan. One suggestion as to why babies sleep patterns are so different from those of adults is that their sleep is an adaptive mechanism to make their parents life easier daytime sleep means that parents can get on with their chores which enhances survival.Infants greater amount of active/REM sleep may be explained in ground of the relative immaturity of the brain, and is related to the considerable amount of learning t aking place. The change of sleep patterns in adolescence may be linked to changes in hormone production at this age. These hormones are primarily released at night and wherefore sleep patterns are disturbed leading to sleep deprivation. Hormone changes can also explain the upset to the circadian clock, which has been described as a delayed sleep phase syndrome by Crowley et al. ome seekers go as far as saying that schools should begin later to accommodate the poor vigilance span of adolescents in the early morning (Wolfson and Carskadon). In adults, the common perception is that a good nights sleep is related to good health. To test this, Kripke et al surveyed over a million adults and bring that there in an increased mortality risk associated with too much sleep. However, this was a correlational theory, and therefore does not account for extraneous variables. This means that a casual relationship cannot be established.It could be the sae that profound illness may lead to incr eased sleep needs and to increased mortality. Reduced sleep in old age is partly a consequence of physiological changes, but may also be explained in terms of actual problems staying asleep, such as sleep apnoea or medical illnesses. The resulting sleep shortage in old age might explain why older people experience impair functions, for example, of their alertness. Various treatments can be used to increase sleep at night, including relaxation techniques and melatonin to increase sleepiness.The research in this area shows that sleep patterns vary considerably with age, but these patterns are also influenced by ethnical values as well as lifestyle habits (such as consumption of a alcohol, amount of habit and so on). Tynjala et al found that sleep may also reflect cultural differences/ moreover in Korea, the mean sleep time was about 6. 5 hours (Shin et al) and the mean sleep time in Iran was 7. 5 hours (Glanizadeh et al), both supporting the view that sleep duration is shorter in A sia then Europe.