I Thought You Were Dead by Pete Nelson

Author:Pete Nelson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2010-10-24T04:00:00+00:00

14

The Laughing Club

He slept poorly during the time that Tamsen and Stephen were in Paris, “taking it to the next level.” Rather than toss and turn pointlessly, stewing in his own insecurities, he tried to get work done, logging on and using the Internet. Sleep and sleep deprivation seemed appropriate research topics. He learned how the homeostatic system regulates sleep by responding to the body’s adenosine levels, while in the circadian system, light stimulates photoreceptive ganglia in the back of the retina to send a message to the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus to tell the pineal gland on the epithalmus to excrete melatonin. Who knew? He typed:

Rats deprived of REM sleep for a few days start attacking their handlers and one another. They become hypermetabolic and burn huge amounts of calories standing still. Their hair falls out. The first to die, die of sepsis after five days, and the majority die at about the three-week mark, while the hardiest last as long as a month. Dolphins and whales get very little REM sleep, one cerebral hemisphere dozing off while the other half stays awake. Even fruit flies need sleep. Of all the creatures tested, the duck-billed platypus gets more REM sleep than any other animal.

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