What defines "being asleep"...

Ronan H · 2007-05-28 16:07:07

I have been wondering about this for a while... There are the two states: Asleep and Awake Obviously they are defined as two different things for a reason, there must be some variables that differ in each in order for them to be two seperate things. So when you are asleep or awake whats the difference? As in, does your…

28-05-2007 05:07PM

#1

Ronan H

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I have been wondering about this for a while...

There are the two states: Asleep and Awake

Obviously they are defined as two different things for a reason, there must be some variables that differ in each in order for them to be two seperate things. So when you are asleep or awake whats the difference? As in, does your brain work differently, is there some chemical stuff going on that is unique to each, is there any physical issues? What are the variables that quantify asleep and not asleep?

Looking forward to hearing about it...

Sleepy Head

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#2 28-05-2007 08:51PM

Zillah

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My understanding is that its mostly electrical. Sleep is measured in terms of brain wave frequency, and there are infact dozens of different mental states along the lines of asleep/awake, but primarily awake/REM/non-rem.

Try the wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep

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