Topics and Speakers Carl W. Bazil, MD, PhD
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Synopsis
In our fast-paced society, sleep is not given the importance it merits. It is usually dismissed as something that is either not needed or can be minimized. However, as Dr Carl W. Bazil discusses in this lecture, lack of sleep severely disrupts the body's circadian rhythms, a complicated system involving temperature and hormonal systems.
In this lecture, Dr Bazil discusses the neuroanatomy of sleep, concentrating upon the different stages people go through during sleep, outlining what constitutes normal sleep and how it changes during the life cycle, and its importance in overall health.
Following the discussion of normal sleep, Dr Bazil describes several studies that demonstrate the problems that result from lack of sleep. One study examined two groups of medical students on call at a hospital who had different sleep hours. The study found that even the slightest of sleep changes can have dramatic effects on both the student's safety (e.g., more car accidents are bound to happen with less sleep) and their ability to provide quality health care to patients. A laboratory study found that if a group of cells are taken out of an animal and put in a dish, they will continue to follow an intrinsic circadian pattern on a 24-hour cycle, regardless of external stimuli.
Dr Bazil then discusses abnormal sleep, examining interesting disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea, head-banging during the night and REM sleep behavior disorder, in which patients sometimes unconsciously assault their sleep partner. He offers a brief discussion about how melatonin can substitute for light in blind people in order to help their circadian rhythms stay on track. Dr Bazil concludes the lecture by describing how temperature, hormones, and light all signal to the body that it is either time to go to bed or wake up.
