Literature Review Assignment - Essay Example

Module Literature Review According to the study conducted by Lack, Gradisar, Van Someren, Wright, and Lushington, exposure to bright lights can actually delay an individual’s awakening time. In this research, participants were exposed to dim light as well as bright light settings for definite periods of time. The researchers would discover that the propensity to sleep is basically regulated by the body’s circadian clock which is determined by the body’s core temperature. According to Lack, Gradisar, Van Someren, Wright, and Lushington, people experience the most in-depth stages of sleep when the body temperature is at a minimum.

Moreover, towards the end of the minimum body temperature stage, a person will enter the ‘wake maintenance zone’ (Lack, Gradisar, Van Someren, Wright, and Lushington 309). In addition, the body’s temperature does not just affect the rhythms that people experience when engaged in the dream phase or before waking up. A person’s body temperature can also affect his or her frequency of experiencing insomnia. The onset of insomnia can be attributed to delayed rhythms of body temperature in incidences where an individual attempts to sleep in the midst of a delayed wake maintenance period.

This may typically be experienced in the evening. Insomnia can also happen in the morning. Experiences of awakening insomnia in the morning may be connected to the incidence of advanced rhythm in temperature. According to Lack, Gradisar, Van Someren, Wright, and Lushington, the combination of maintenance insomnia and sleep onset is linked with the constant elevation of the temperature of the human body stimulating the continual hyper-arousal state that is characteristic of insomnia (307). Work CitedLack, Leon, Michael Gradisar, Eus Van Someren, Helen Wright and Kurt Lushington.

“The relationship between insomnia and body temperatures.” Sleep Medicine Reviews 12.4(2008):307-317. Retrieved from http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fpublication%2F5248301_The_relationship_between_insomnia_and_body_temperatures%2Ffile%2F60b7d51f5cc487d715.pdf&ei=HXMfU-7kB8HG7Ab__4EQ&usg=AFQjCNEsRPwdbDBALS8CjnPGMNwGMAVXeg&sig2=nYG9smJgiDyJPLTAV_ym3w&bvm=bv.62788935,d.ZGU