Sleep States and Somatomotor Activity

Abstract

Beneath the calm exterior of the sleeping mammal, dynamic forces are at play. There are mechanisms that provide for the two alternating sleep states that occur while mammals are “asleep.” During one of these states, processes are generated that result in a storm of neuronal activity; motor excitatory forces vie with motor inhibitory forces for the control of moto-neurons, and although excitation may momentarily triumph, inhibition generally reigns supreme. When the bastions of inhibition are breached by excitatory forces, a twitching and jerking of the limbs and eyes results. Because of these twitches and jerks, this state of sleep is called active sleep in infrahuman species (also paradoxical sleep, desynchronized sleep, deep sleep, etc.) and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep in humans, and the sleep stage that precedes it is called quiet sleep (or non-REM in humans) because there is little in the way of easily observable movements. These alternating episodes of quiet and active sleep comprise each sleep period.KeywordsSleep StateParadoxical SleepExcitatory ForceActive SleepInhibitory Postsynaptic PotentialThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.