SECTION A
The True Story of The Man Who Never Slept
Rebecca Turner (2007)
Fatal Familial Insomnia, or FFI, is a devastating genetic sleep disorder, which strikes during middle age and results in death. This is the story of Michael Corke.
Shortly after his 40th birthday in 1991, Michael Corke, a music teacher from Chicago, began having trouble sleeping. In the following weeks, the insomnia grew worse and his health rapidly deteriorated. Eventually, he couldn’t sleep at all.
The doctors were baffled but could do nothing for him. Michael was physically and mentally exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to be able to fall asleep, but his brain wouldn’t let him.
Eventually he was admitted to hospital and doctors diagnosed him with an extremely rare genetic disorder discovered just seven years prior, Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI).
Michael Corke died in hospital after six months from a complete lack of sleep.
The tell-tale sign of this disease is an insoluble protein that causes plaque to develop on the section of the brain responsible for the regulation of sleep. As the plaque “eats away” at the brain, the sufferer loses the ability to shut down at night. This manifests in the form of insomnia
There is currently no known cure for FFI.
Questions
1. Identify and explain the purpose of the three recording devices that may have been used to assess Michael’s condition in a sleep laboratory.
EMG – Detects, amplifies, records the electrical activity in the movement in the muscles that occur during each stage of sleep.
EOG – Detects, amplifies, records the electrical activity in the movement in the muscles around the eyes.
EEG – Detects, amplifies, records the electrical activity in the brain in the form of brain waves.
3 marks
2. Provide three examples of physiological effects that relate to Michael’s career as a music teacher after he had gone 11 days without sleep.
Hand Tremors – He would be experiencing hand tremors while he was playing an instrument.
Eyelids Droopy – He would have trouble keeping his eyes open while he was trying to read sheet music.
Slurred Speech – He would have difficulty speaking while he was trying to talk to his students.
3 marks
3. Provide three examples of psychological effects that relate to Michael’s career as a music teacher after he had gone 11 days without sleep.
Irritable – He would have gotten angry with his students for making a mistake, which he wouldn’t normally get angry about.
Hallucinations – He may have been seeing things that were not there while he was trying to teach the students, like a spider crawling over a piano.
Difficulty concentrating – He would have trouble focusing while giving his students examples on how to play a piece of music.
3 marks
4. It has been suggested that total sleep deprivation cannot actually occur.
Explain why this is.
Because microsleeps can occur, which is when the brain takes split second naps while the individual is awake. The brainwaves shown during this time imitate those of a person who is asleep for a split second.
1 mark
5. As Fatal Familial Insomnia is extremely rare, the information that researchers have gathered on the disorder has been due to watching a small number of sufferers over a long period of time. This intensive study is known as a case study.
List one advantage and one disadvantage of using case studies:
Advantage: They provide in depth and detailed information on an individual or a small group of people.
Disadvantage: The information cannot be generalised because the amount of people studied is so small OR time consuming and expensive.
2 marks
6. Give an example of a tasks that Michael would have found difficult after being deprived of sleep for 3 days.
He would have found simple tasks such as washing dishes quite difficult.
1 mark
7. Give an example of a task that Michael would have found easy after being deprived of sleep for 3 days.
He would have found it easier to complete tasks involving controlled processing easier, such as working out a difficult maths equation.
1 mark
8. Describe the purpose of sleep in terms of the restorative theory of sleep and use this theory to explain why Michael Clarke died from a lack of sleep.
The restorative theory of sleep suggests that organisms sleep in order to replenish the brain and the body. It suggests that we go through NREM sleep in order to repair tissue damage that an organism has suffered during the day, and we go through REM sleep in order for the brain to restore and repair itself. This is supported by studies on REM sleep in which memory formation (the strengthening of neurons) has been shown to occur during this time.
This explains why Michael Clarke died from a lack of sleep because his body was not given adequate time to repair tissue damage the body suffered during the day or time to restore and repair the brain. As his body was not able to repair itself, his body slowly wore down and his immune system was unable to continuously fight off threats, leading to his eventual death.
6 marks
SECTION B
Teens, Sleep and School
Gisele Glosser (2011)
Research has shown that teenagers don’t get enough sleep at night and go to school tired. Some experts believe the cause is biological. Others believe that teenagers stay up late because of adolescent distractions. Early high school start times can also contribute to teens’ tiredness.
Research shows that teens need up to eight to nine hours of sleep at night, as compared with eight hours needed for adults. However, they are not getting enough sleep. A recent study at Drexel University of students aged 12 to 18 found that 20 percent of those studied got the recommended eight or more hours of sleep during school nights with the rest getting less than eight hours.
A study of Rhode Island teenagers found that 85 percent were chronically sleep-deprived and accumulated a minimum 10 hour sleep deficit during the week. 40 percent went to bed after 11pm, 26 percent said they usually got less than 6.5 hours on school nights.
1. Draw an example of a typical sleep cycle experienced by an adolescent.
This should be a diagram of typical sleep cycle that is experienced for a night.
5 marks
2. List and describe a biological factor which could account for why adolescents become sleepier later.
During adolescence, a hormone called melatonin (which when released causes sleepiness) is released around two hours later, which is why adolescents will often not feel tired until later in the evening, therefore going to sleep later.
2 marks
3. Give two examples of social factors which could account for why adolescents become sleepier later.
Reasons such as wanting to socialize with friends during the evening and having a part time job which requires them to work late.
2 marks
4. The researchers conducting the study at Drexel University would have had to obtain informed consent. Explain what this involves.
This involves informing the participants (and their parents or guardians if they are under 18) of the nature of the study AND gaining their consent (again, the consent of parents or guardians is required if the participants are under 18).
2 marks
5. Explain how an adolescent’s sleep-wake cycle can be affected when their sleep-wake times change throughout the week.
They can incur a sleep debt which means that as they week goes on, they lose sleep each night and they need to make this time up so that it does not cause physiological and psychological effects associated with sleep deprivation. This would mean that when they can ‘sleep in’ on the weekends, that they will sleep for longer to make up for the time that they have lost.
1 mark
6. Identify two long term problems that can be caused by a continuous lack of sleep during adolescence.
Anxiety and depression
2 marks
7. The study by Drexel University also found that students were often in an altered state of consciousness known as daydreaming.
Identify and give examples of two characteristics which would lead the researchers to believe that a student was in an altered state of consciousness.
Time Orientation – They may have been daydreaming for a short period of time (5 mins) but felt like it was actually longer (25 mins).
Content – They may have been upset by some of the information that they were daydreaming about, because they had no control over the content because they were in an altered state of consciousness.
4 marks
8. In order to conduct the study, the researchers needed to divide the participants into an experimental and control group. Explain the purpose of each of these groups.
The experimental group is exposed to the independent variable in order to see if it has an effect on the dependent variable.
The control group was not exposed to the independent variable, in order to provide a baseline comparison for the experimental group. This enables researchers to see if the difference in the dependent variable was due to the independent variable or due to other factors.
2 marks
SECTION C
‘Sleeping It Off’ Not So Easy For Women’
Crystal Phend (2011)
Getting drunk may take more of a toll on sleep for women than men, according to a polysomnography experiment.
After getting intoxicated, women got less sleep and less quality sleep compared with nights after drinking a non alcoholic placebo, whereas men showed no differences across nights. The vast majority of participants correctly guessed whether they were getting alcohol or not despite attempts to double blind the study, leaving open the possibility that the results may reflect a psychological rather than physiological effect of alcohol.
After drinking the study beverage one to two and a half hours before bedtime, the participants sleep was monitored. One week later the process was repeated with the opposite beverage for each individual.
Results showed that after drinking alcohol, women got 20 minutes less total sleep time, had 4% lower sleep efficiency, and spent 15 minutes more time awake during the night compared with nights after drinking the placebo.
Men showed little change across the nights, and thus differed from women for total sleep time (p<0.05), sleep efficiency (p<0.01), number of awakenings (p<0.05) and time spent awake after sleep onset (p<0.01).
While alcohol’s effect on sleep typically changes during the night as it switches from a sedative to a stimulant for the body, this didn’t differ between men and women.
Questions
1. Identify which state of consciousness the participants were in when they had consumed alcohol, and what state they were in when they had consumed the placebo.
Students who had consumed the alcohol were in an altered state of consciousness and students who had consumed the placebo were in normal waking consciousness.
2 marks
2. List and explain three effects that alcohol has on consciousness.
Emotional Control – as alcohol places people in an altered state of consciousness they have less control over their emotions and may get upset or angry easier when they are intoxicated. They may also have dulled emotions due to alcohol consumption.
6 marks
3. List two physiological changes that an individual in the alcohol trial may be experiencing.
Self Control – Alcohol reduces the ability of an individual to have full control over their body and this can cause them to have difficulty walking and moving around as they normally would.
2 marks
4. The participants in the study may have been monitored during their sleep using devices such as an EEG and an EOG.
Explain what an EEG and an EOG would show during REM sleep.
EEG – Would show beta like waves
EOG – Would show rapid eye movements
2 marks
5. What research design was used in this study?
Repeated Measures Design
1 mark
6. List one advantage of using this research design.
Eliminates participant variables.
1 mark
7. Were the results for ‘time spent awake after sleep onset’ statistically significant? Explain your answer.
These results indicate that the probability that the results were due to chance was less than 1 in 100 trials. This means that they were statistically significant.
2 marks
8. List and explain two potential confounding variables that the researcher tried to control through the research method.
Order Effect – The experimenter used counterbalancing by ensuring that the order in which the participants were given either the alcohol or placebo was different for half of the participants.
Participant Expectations – The experimenters used a single blind procedure by not informing participants which beverage they were tasting each week (either placebo or alcohol).
4 marks
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