Restorative Theory Inactivity At Night

Sleep can be defined as the “periodic, natural loss of consciousness” (Myers & Dewall, 2015, p. 100). It could also be defined as “a recurring state of relaxation that is characterized by an altered state of consciousness, inhibited sensory activity, muscular inhibition, and severely reduced interaction with outside entities”(Alleydog, 2018). A concrete answer to the question of why exactly we sleep has yet to be answered by scientists, but there are a number of theories. One of the earliest theories about why we sleep is the inactivity theory. It is also referred to as the adaptive theory or the evolutionary theory. This theory proposes that “inactivity at night is an adaptation that served a survival function by keeping organisms out of

Physical restoration meaning “the repairing and renewing of tissues and nerve cells, the neutralization of neurotoxins, and the restoration of normal levels of chemicals throughout our bodies. (HowSleepWorks.Com, 2018). In other words, “sleep provides an opportunity for the body to repair and rejuvenate itself” (Harvard Medical School, 2017). This theory can be supported and backed up by the fact that “many of the major restorative functions in the body like muscle growth, tissue repair, protein synthesis, and growth hormone release occur mostly, or in some cases only, during sleep” (Harvard Medical School,

sleep or rapid eye movement sleep. This stage generally takes place about an hour or so after one initially falls asleep and repeats itself every about ninety minutes. For the first ten minutes of rapid eye movement sleep, give or take, “your brain waves become rapid” (Myers & Dewall, 2015, p.103). Along with increasingly rapid brain waves comes increased heart rate, irregular breathing patterns, and the eyes darting around in “momentary bursts of activity” (Myers & Dewall, 2015, p. 103). The appearance of eye movements marks the onset and beginning of a dream. The dreams that occur during rapid eye movement sleep are often “emotional, story-like, and richly hallucinatory” (Myers & Dewall, 2015, p. 103). A strange aspect of rapid eye movement sleep is the fact that the genitals will become aroused “regardless of whether the content [of the dream] is sexual” (Myers & Dewall, 2015, p. 103). Also during this stage of sleep, the brainstem blocks the messages sent from the motor cortex, which in turn leaves the muscles