Define what is meant by total and partial sleep deprivation

-Total sleep deprivation is where a person or an animal is deprived of all the

stages of sleep including REM sleep whereas partial sleep deprivation is
where you are only deprived on one stage which is usually REM sleep.

Outline the following research studies into total and partial sleep
deprivation
- Research into total sleep deprivation was carried out by Dement and
Johnson who had a 17 year old school boy called Randy Gardner who wanted
to break the world record by having no sleep for 260 hours. The researchers
used this experience to gather information and useful data on sleep
deprivation. Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours and 12 mins. He suffered
hallucinations, ataxia, speech difficulty and irritability.

- Also Peter Tripp lasted 200 hours in a similar study, he also suffered similar
effects. After the study he was said to be a different person. During the study
his health was monitored and was shown to have a dropped mean level in
body temperature and was also shown to go through the sleep cycle even
though he was awake and functioning.

-Rechtschaffen’s rat experiment had a rat on a turntable that rotated

whenever its EEG record indicated that it was falling asleep. The turntable
was placed above water, which ensured that the rat had to keep walking in
order to stop itself falling in the water. This was the experimental rat. The
second rat was a yoked controlled rat which was forced to do the same
exercise as the experimental rat but could fall asleep on its own when the
experimental rat was awake (the turntable did not move when the exp rat was
awake). This procedure ensured that both rats did the same exercise but that
the exp rat only slept for 13% of its usual sleep time and the other one slept
for 69%. The exp rats showed an immediate decline. They appeared weak,
stopped grooming and became uncoordinated. Although they continued to eat
the lost weight due to a marked increase in metabolic rate. Most exp rats die
between 21 and 33 days. In contrast, the control rats, although they lost
weight appeared to be healthy.

-Research into partial sleep deprivation was carried out by Dement who had 8
volunteers who agreed to spend a week in a sleep lab being deprived of REM
sleep. Whenever their EEG and eye movements indicated they were entering
REM sleep they were woken up and kept awake for a few mins. The
volunteers were then allowed to go back to sleep until the entered REM sleep
again. Over the course of the nights, the participants had to be woken more
and more frequently. On the first night they were woken an average of 12
times but by the last night they were woken around 26 times. During this
period, p’s reported mild personality changes such as irritability, anxiety and
impaired concentration. When the p’s were allowed to sleep normally there
was a 10% increase in the amount of time spent in REM sleep.

-Jouvet undertook an experiment on cats. These cats were placed on tiny

islands surrounded by water. When a cat enters REM sleep its muscles relax.
This meant that the cats lost their balance and fell into the water. This woken
them up and they climbed back onto the island (a flowerpot) and started the
sleep stage again. The cats could go through all the stages of sleep except
REM sleep. Interestingly, the cats became conditioned even while asleep to
wake up when they went into REM sleep and didn’t have to fall in the water.
The cats became disturbed very quickly and died after an average of 35 days.

In pairs evaluate the studies – methodology and ethics

-these studies are completely unethical as they do not protect the p’s from
harm. Many of them are psychologically damaged after the exp and the
animals often died.
-Cannot be generalised to other populations and in some cases to other
animals.