Normal Sleep and FFI
Normal sleep has different stages that together last 90 to 100 minutes:
- REM-sleep when dreams occur.
- Non REM Stages 1 and 2: Light sleep NREM-sleep
- Non REM Stages 3 and 4: Deep slow wave sleep
REM is most important for health, followed by stage 2. Most reviving and repairing processes of the body are believed to happen during these two stages. FFI patients cannot go past stage 1 and thus their brains are not getting the rest they need to revive. Prolonged REM-sleep deprivation is the eventual cause of death.
Read more about this topic: Fatal Familial Insomnia
Famous quotes containing the words normal and/or sleep:
“Every normal person, in fact, is only normal on the average. His ego approximates to that of the psychotic in some part or other and to a greater or lesser extent.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)