Biological rhythms 4

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  • Created by: Sarah
  • Created on: 21-04-13 10:25

Sleep disorders

Outline the sleep disorder insomnia.

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Sleep disorders

Insomnia is either chronic primary insomnia or secondary insomnia. Chronic primary insomnia is where the indvidual has insomnia without any underlying cause or symptoms. In order to be diagnosed you must have the symptoms of the disorder for a month at least. It is associated with a higher heart rate, metabollic rate and temperature. It is associated with individuals who are anxious, emotional, extrovert and who internalise emotions. It has been suggested that you can have a genetic predisposition from chronic primary insomnia which is triggered by the environment.

Secondary insomnia is caused by an underlying symptom such as illness, stress, drugs or poor physical or mental health. Stress causes the sympathetic branch of the ANS to activate so that the parasympathetic branch cannot activate. It may also be caused by either obtrusive sleep apnoea where the individual stops breathing or secondary sleep apnoea where the medulla does not send messages to the brain to activate breathing. 

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Sleep disorders

Outline the sleep disorder narcolepsy.

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Sleep disorders

Narcolepsy causes an individual to experience short naps throughout the day and a struggle to maintain wakefulness. It is also often associated with cataplexy where, during these short naps, the individuals' body experience musclar paralysis. There have been 3 suggested causes for the disorder. It may be caused by a malfunction of the REM sleep regulation system. It may, secondly, be caused by a mutation in the immune system. And finally it may be caused my a malfunction of hypocretin production, a neurotransmitter that maintains wakefulness of an individual. 

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Sleep disorders

Outline the sleep disorder of sleep walking.

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Sleep disorders

Sleep walking is most commonly experienced by men or children. It is often characterized by a sudden burst of slow wave sleep. It also often occurs during the transition between REM and Nrem sleep. It is very dangerous as it can often cause accidents. During a sleep walking episode, the indvidual experiences REM sleep but the RAS does not activate musclar paralysis so the individual is caused to act out their dreams. 

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