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Some Experiments in the Chemistry of Normal Sleep

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Ian Oswald ,
G. W. Ashcroft ,
R. J. Berger ,
D. Eccleston ,
J. I. Evans  and
V. R. Thacore
Ian Oswald
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia
G. W. Ashcroft
Affiliation:
Medical Research Council Unit for the Study of Brain Metabolism, Department of Pharmacology, University of Edinburgh
R. J. Berger
Affiliation:
Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, California
D. Eccleston
Affiliation:
Medical Research Council Unit for the Study of Brain Metabolism, Department of Pharmacology, University of Edinburgh
J. I. Evans
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh
V. R. Thacore
Affiliation:
Mapperly Hospital, Nottingham
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Extract

Sleep is essential for physical and mental health. In the last 15 years there has grown up the concept of the brain stem reticular activating system. Electroencephalographic studies have shown two qualitatively different and alternating kinds of sleep, the orthodox (“slow wave”, or “forebrain“) and the paradoxical (”hind-brain“, “rapid eye movement”, “activated“, or “dreaming”) phases (Akert et al., 1965). It may be predicted that in the next decade attention will turn increasingly to the chemical basis of sleep. If a man is deprived of sleep for 100 hours, it is extremely difficult to keep him awake and one may suppose that an abnormal biochemical state exists within his central nervous system.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 112 , Issue 485 , April 1966 , pp. 391 - 399
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1966 

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