Sleep Studies

Question 1

Morgan

What did they find? What aspect/theory of sleep does it support?

Answer 1

• Removed SCN from hamsters - circadian rhythm disappeared - no rhythm without SCN.
• superchiasmatic nucleus (nuclei).

Question 2

Schochat

What did they find?

Answer 2

• Found period of greatest sleep propensity occurred just after melatonin secretion.

Question 3

Campbell and Murphy

What did they find?

Answer 3

• Participants given regular light exposure on the back of their knees, caused changes in their biological rhythms in line with the light/dark they were exposed ti

Question 4

Folkhard

What did they find? What aspect/theory of sleep does it support?

Answer 4

• Participants lived in a cave for 12 weeks, researchers quickened the clock the followed to 22 hours, volunteers cycle stayed at 24 hours - SCN overruled clock.
• superchiasmatic nucleus (nuclei).

Question 5

Miles et al

What did they find? What study does this support?

Answer 5

• Studied blind man from birth, had a strong 24.9 hour circadian rhythm, struggles resetting biological rhythms, has to take sedatives - shows that you cannot reset your body clock naturally without the use of light.
• Folkhard

Question 6

Cho

What did they find?

Answer 6

• Found that cabin crew had problems with working memory which became apparent after years of disruption of circadian rhythms - shows disruption can cause other problems.

Question 7

Cho (2)

What did they find?

Answer 7

• Found that those wit short jet lag recovery (5 days) between flights had smaller temporal lobes and lower scores on visio spacial tasks than those with a longer recovery time (12 days).

Question 8

Rafnsson

What did they find?

Answer 8

• Studied 1500 flight attendants and found that those who had been flying for over 5 years had double the risk of breast cancer.

Question 9

Recht

What did they find?

Answer 9

• Found that over 3 years, an American baseball team won 37% of games when travelling West to East, but when they travelled East to West, they won 44%.

Question 10

Lee and Martin

What did they find? What evolutionary theories of sleep does this support?

Answer 10

• Koala’s sleep for 19 hours a day, their diet is mainly eucalyptus leaves which have a low nutritional value.
• Energy conservation and predation (sleep high up in trees = no risk).

Question 11

Allison and Cicchetti

What did they find? What evolutionary theory of sleep does this support?

Answer 11

• Predators sleep more and animals that sleep in burrows are safer so sleep more.
• Predation theory.

Question 12

Gregor

What did they find? What evolutionary theory of sleep does this support?

Answer 12

• 60% of dreams contained a threat.

- Threat simulation theory.

Question 13

Hublin

What did they find?

Answer 13

• Sleepwalking concordance rate in children (MZ:55%, DZ: 35%). Adults (MZ:32%, DZ:6%).

Question 14

Bassetti

What did they find?

Answer 14

• 50% of sleepwalkers had a specific gene (variant of HLA) - only 24% of non sleepwalkers had this gene.

Question 15

Olivero

What did they find?

Answer 15

• Sleepwalking - more frequent in children
  Inhibitory system is undeveloped - insufficient quantities of GABA.
  Adult sleepwalking = result of inhibitory GABA mechanism remaining undeveloped.