Sleep Center Psychology

How are you and the rest of the family? I am writing to you because the material I have been learning about in psychology relates to the issues that Mother has recently been having. Last week, we covered the topic of sleep, and I was able to learn a lot about the subject. The primary tool used that has lead to a great deal of discoveries in the field of sleep and dreams is called an electroencephalograph (EEG). It is basically a device that monitors the electrical activity of the brain over a certain amount of time. When mom visited The Sleep Center yesterday, they used the machine on her--in case you still do not know what I am talking about, it was the picture I sent you where she had wires attached to her scalp. Essentially, the machine
works by detecting different brain waves, which are divided into four distinct bands based on the frequency of brain wave. Beta waves show up when a person is problem solving, alpha waves appear when a person is relaxed or resting, delta waves occur when a person is in a deep dreamless sleep, and there is a fourth type of wave called theta waves. However, that is just the primary tool used to measure sleep. Some of the more important things I learned about were the circadian rhythm and our body’s biological clock. The circadian rhythm is just the twenty-four hour biological cycle that our bodies use; it explains why Grandfather falls asleep every night at seven o’clock, on the dot. This also may be one of the reason’s for Mother’s inability to sleep lately. Research has found that people who work overnight and rotating shifts suffer because their circadian rhythms are never truly aligned, so they get less and a poorer quality of sleep. However, I learned that researchers have tested to see if exposing patients to carefully timed bright lights can make them adjust to new sleep schedules, and overall improve their quality of sleep. Bright-light administration hasn’t produced a great deal of positive effects, but it’s worth a shot if it will help Mother sleep better. Although Mother’s sleep pattern has been off on the days that she works, she has been unable to sleep on her days off either.
I came home from a friends house early one morning to find her walking in circles downstairs. This was the thing that pushed me to get her evaluated at The Sleep Center. Since she only went yesterday, we have not received a diagnosis from the doctor yet, but I believe I know what is happening to her at night. I came across the sleep oddity of somnambulism (which is just a big word for sleep walking that occurs during deep sleep). It usually happens in children more than adults, but is often times genetic. Do you know if anyone else from our side of the family suffers from somnambulism? If they do I think it would be helpful to let the doctors know. I decided not to wake her up that night-- which was good on my part, because you are not supposed to abruptly wake someone up from a deep sleep-- but because of this she has no idea that she has been sleep walking. Please do not tell Grandpa, because I do not want him to become unnecessarily worried. I will make sure to write you and let you know what the diagnosis is, but please remember to let me know if anyone else in the family has suffered from somnambulism. Regardless, I am sure mom will be fine. Oh, and make sure to tell everyone that we send our love and best
wishes!