Foundations of Sleep

Sleep is not an esoteric phenomenon, but is so misunderstood or elusive that everybody has a
description. Prior to scientific explanations, sleep was often described as an ethereal experience.
Dreaming was associated with sleep and became analyzed, interpreted and symbolized in may
facets of life.
But first, we must review wakefulness or a state of consciousness and the following descriptions
will describe and define sleep from a scientific perspective.
Awake
Wakefulness is a state of complete consciousness and a state of non-sleep.
Consciousness is having an awareness of one's environment and one's own existence, sensations,
and thoughts. Aware implies knowledge gained through one's own perceptions. Consciousness is
being mentally perceptive or alert and awake, with the capability of thought, will, or perception.
Sleep
Sleep is a physical and mental resting state in which a person becomes relatively inactive and
unaware of the environment.
Sleep is a natural and periodic state of rest during which consciousness of the world is
suspended. The eyes usually close and consciousness is completely or partially lost, so that there
is a decrease in bodily movement and responsiveness to external stimuli. During sleep the brain
in humans and other mammals undergoes a characteristic cycle of brain-wave activity that
includes intervals of dreaming. Most people think of sleep as a passive, dormant part of our daily
lives.
We now know that our brains are very active during sleep.
Sleep affects our daily physical and mental functioning and health in many ways which we are
just beginning to understand.

Brain Waves
 A Nerve Terminal

The mammalian brain contains ~1011 nerve cells or neurons, which assimilate and process information.

These neurons receive information from other cells through a treelike network called dendrites and
transmit it in the form of electrical impulses, or action potentials, along a cable like axon to other nerves.

At the end of the axon, the message is relayed to other cells at points of contact called synapses, where
the electrical message causes the release of a chemical neurotransmitter that diffuses across a small gap to
another neuron. The neurotransmitter binds to and activates a receptor on this second neuron and
contributes to the formation of another action potential, repeating the cycle.

Each neuron may have about 1000 such synapses and thus can integrate information received from many
other cells.

With the advent of biological sensors, and the techniques to monitor brain waves, research has
defined wakefulness and sleep from a scientific perspective. Brain waves are the graphic
representation of electrical activity that occurs in the brain. The electroencephalograph (EEG)
records the activity according to set standards for recording.
Brain waves are measured according to time and voltage. Time is on the X axis and moves are
measured in millimeters per second. (mm/sec)
Voltage is on the Y axis and is measured in microvolts. (uV) Brain wave recording scales are
set to amplitudes of 0 - 100 uV's or greater. Although most sleep brain wave patterns are in the 0
- 15 uV range.
A typical graph is as follows and represents one channel of information, from one brain location,
with one electrode. {see International 10-20 System for location and placement of electrodes}
Multiple channels of EEG look something like the following seven channels of information and
when monitoring of this type is completed, with regular recurring channels, the list of channels
are referred to as a montage.
Montages may be all EEG or a composite of channels such as used with overnight sleep
monitoring, which includes breathing, the heart, eye movement and muscle movements. A single
page of sleep recording is 30 seconds in duration as a standard and may be referred to as; a page
of sleep or an epoch of sleep.
O.k. figure it out now, two pages per minute, times 60 minutes....... that's 120 pages per hour,
times 8 hours of sleep....or almost one thousand epochs of sleep to evaluate.

The Range of Brain Waves

In electronic circuits things happen.
Voltage/time, V/t, graphs provide a useful method of describing the changes which
take place. The diagram below shows the V/t graph which represents a DC signal:

Compare this graph with the V/t graphs for several types of alternating, or AC, signals:
As you can see, the voltage levels change with time and alternate between positive values (above
the X-axis) and negative values (below the X-axis). Signals with repeated shapes are called
waveforms and include sine waves, square waves, triangular waves and sawtooth waves. A
distinguishing feature of alternating waves is that equal areas are enclosed above and below the
X-axis.

Sine waves
A sine wave has the same shape as the graph of the sine function used in trigonometry. In
electronics, sine waves are among the most useful of all signals.
Look at the sine wave in more detail:
The terms defined below are needed to describe sine waves and other waveforms precisely:
Period: {time} The period is the time taken for one complete cycle of a repeating waveform. The
period is often thought of as the time interval between peaks, but can be measured between any
two corresponding points in successive cycles.
Frequency: {f} This is the number of cycles completed per second. The measurement unit for
frequency is the hertz or Hz.
1 Hz = 1 cycle per second
If you know the period, the frequency of the signal can be calculated.

The Brain Wave Cycles

As mentioned, most sleep brain wave patterns are in the 0 - 15 uV range. Count the number of
cycles, peak to peak in the graph below.
 Top to bottom: 1 Hz, 2 Hz, 5 Hz
The brain wave cycles or hertz are represented as follows:
The best way to remember the frequencies of the waves are BATD.
 Beta - 12 - 14 Hz or cycles per second
 Alpha - 8 - 12 Hz or cycles per second
 Theta - 3 - 7 Hz or cycles per second
 Delta - 0.5 - 2 Hz or cycles per second
Occasionally or when first starting it is customary to enlarge the graph, with computer zooming,
note the one second marks and count the waves. Although at times it becomes confusing due to
the irregularity of the brain waves.
There will not be perfect sine waves and remember peak to peak measurements. Count one wave
at a time. Notice how easy it is to count the spindle waves in the following, and it meets the
criteria of 12-14 per second.
Notice how tough it is to count these, without the enlargement. With practice, recognition of the
various brain waves becomes easier when viewing a typical sleep epoch of 30 seconds. Even the
best practitioners will stop and zoom in and out until they're sure of what they are viewing