Course Overview

Examine groundbreaking research on the enigmatic phenomenon of sleep all the way down to the cellular and molecular level, led by an award-winning scientist. Sleep is the subject of intense scientific debate among biologists and neuroscientists. Why must we spend about one-third of our lives asleep? What exactly is sleep? Why does a lack of sleep impair our cognitive abilities and leave us vulnerable to a host of medical issues ranging from obesity to reduced resistance to infectious disease?

These 24 engrossing lectures take you to the forefront of the field to reveal what happens in the sleeping brain right down to the cellular and molecular level. You’ll investigate what biological changes occur during wakefulness that are reversed during sleep—and why your brain forces you to fall asleep to repay an accumulated sleep deficit, no matter how dangerous the circumstances. The science of sleep encompasses basic concepts of electricity, neuroanatomy, and neurochemistry, which are responsible for the “architecture of sleep.” Professor Heller explains the science behind our circadian rhythms, REM and non-REM sleep, the physiology of dreaming, and more. Sleep pathologies and disorders are among the most fascinating topics of the course. From disorders such as sleep apnea, narcolepsy, and restless leg syndrome to parasomnias such as sleepwalking and night terrors, the most up-to-date findings in the science of sleep are truly riveting.

Course Lectures

01: Sweet Sleep-Essential for a Healthy Life

Professor Heller introduces you to the many consequences of short or disrupted sleep, along with accounts of medical mistakes and large-scale disasters likely to have occurred due to sleep deprivation. Contemplate our “National Sleep Deficit” and learn the professor’s hypothesis for the purpose of sleep, which science has yet to fully explain.

Duration: 34 min

02: What Is Sleep?

Given the long-standing interest in sleep, why is the science of sleep so relatively new? As you identify the defining features of sleep as a foundation for later lectures, you explore the tools researchers use to study sleep patterns and what experiments have taught us about the key characteristics of REM and non-REM sleep, including dreams.

Duration: 29 min

03: Sleep across the Night

Examine hypnograms that show how the various stages of REM and non-REM sleep cycle throughout the night. Then, find out how the REM and non-REM sleep states relate, how they change throughout the sleep phase, and why the brain may create changes in sleep intensity to help you “pay back” a sleep deficit.

Duration: 29 min

04: Sleep across the Lifespan

Is there a biological basis for the sleep changes that commonly occur over a person’s lifespan? Learn how your brain’s circadian rhythms regulate sleep, then compare the sleep patterns of precocial and altricial species. Discover the disorders that can impair the restorative quality of sleep and problems associated with sleeping too much.

Duration: 33 min

05: Who in the World Sleeps?

There are thousands of animal species in the world. Do they all have the same need to sleep as we do? Learn the three basic characteristics of sleep that can generally be applied to animals, then investigate the sleep patterns of various species, including migratory birds, arthropods, monotremes, and marine mammals that are able to sleep on only one side of their brains at a time.

Duration: 29 min

06: The Timing of Sleep

In the first of two lectures on understanding the clock in your brain and how it controls virtually every aspect of physiology and behavior, you’ll learn the essential characteristics of circadian rhythms and how working against your clock can result in health and performance problems. Investigate phase advances and delays related to jet lag and shift work.

Duration: 30 min

07: The Wheels of the Circadian Clock

As you turn to the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for the characteristics of circadian rhythms, the professor offers a basic lesson in molecular genetics before discussing “clock genes” and how they can constitute a negative feedback system with a delay in the feedback loop.

Duration: 31 min

08: The Deep Sleep of Hibernators

Hibernation is an adaptation that enables some warm-blooded animals to turn down their thermostats for spans of hours to months in an effort to conserve energy. In the first of two lectures that explore the neural systems that control sleep and wakefulness, investigate the evolutionary explanations for and mechanisms of hibernation in squirrels and bears, as well as daily torpor in birds.

Duration: 32 min

09: The Neuroanatomy and Neurochemistry of Sleep

Many discrete structures in the brain are involved in the control of sleep and wakefulness. Delve into neuroanatomy and neurochemistry, which are necessary to understand how and why we sleep, and how medications and other factors influence sleep. Grasp the significance of discoveries by Giuseppe Moruzzi, Constantin von Economo, and others through an in-depth examination of sleep pathologies.

Duration: 31 min

10: The Neurophysiology of Sleep

Go a step further in discovering the cellular function of non-REM sleep by identifying the cellular changes produced by wakefulness and reversed during sleep, and investigating the processes underlying the generation of slow-wave activity on the EEG. Learn about the fundamental principles of electrical circuits as you explore how a neuron functions like a tiny battery.

Duration: 32 min

11: Sleep Disorders-Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is an incurable neurological disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, disrupted nighttime sleep, bizarre hallucinations at sleep onset, and cataplexy. Analyze research exploring the possibility of a genetic component to this disorder in humans and canines, and learn what medications and other treatments are available to manage it.

Duration: 31 min

12: The Strange World of Dreams

What are dreams and what do they mean? Examine Freudian-Jungian psychoanalytic theory and methods relating to the unconscious as well as scientific hypotheses for the occurrence of dreams. Consider the therapeutic potential of “lucid dreaming” for treating nightmares in post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers and the possibility that dreaming may enhance our ability to be creative.

Duration: 29 min

13: Functions of Sleep-Fueling the Brain

In the first of several lectures that explore hypotheses on the function of sleep, focus on the idea that sleep is for the restoration of brain energy reserves that are depleted during periods of wakefulness. Analyze the relationship between sleep and glycogen metabolism, as well as the molecule adenosine.

Duration: 31 min

14: The Timing and Function of REM Sleep

Why do non-REM and REM cycle, with non-REM always first? Why is non-REM sleep deeper early in the night? Delve into the fundamental relationship between non-REM and REM and question the common assumption that the need for sleep builds during wakefulness. Extend your analysis into a hypothesis about the basic function of REM sleep.

Duration: 31 min

15: Sleep and Learning-Procedural Memory

In studying the interactions between sleep and the stages of procedural memory—including encoding, consolidation, stabilization, reactivation, and reconsolidation—you’ll focus on experiments that seek to identify which type of sleep contributes to the consolidation of procedural memories and whether this effect can be exploited to maximize learning.

Duration: 33 min

16: Sleep and Declarative Memory

Turn now to declarative memory and the ways that sleep impacts our capacity to form and integrate conscious memories and improves our ability to use the facts we remember. Explore hypotheses about memory consolidation, reactivation, and reconsolidation by analyzing a working model of two-step memory processes involving the hippocampus and cortex.

Duration: 32 min

17: Sleep and Memory in Animals

For both humans and animals, sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation and therefore, learning. Focus on evidence that sleep promotes structural changes in the nervous system, then move on to the neurophysiological processes of memory consolidation. Conclude by looking at factors that can disrupt the sleep-related functions required for learning and memory.

Duration: 32 min

18: Sleep and Learning Disability

Using your understanding of how sleep is critically involved in learning and memory, explore whether an underlying cause for learning disabilities may be related to sleep systems or mechanisms, and whether they offer a route to a therapy. Consider the potential for improving learning and memory in individuals with Down syndrome, specifically.

Duration: 28 min

19: When You Cannot Sleep-Insomnia

Move on from lectures exploring how we “sleep to learn” to the first of several lectures concerned with “learning to sleep.” Differentiate between primary and secondary insomnias as you identify some of the major causes of sleep disruption, and confront the consequences suffered by those who delay sleep—both intentionally and unintentionally.

Duration: 28 min

20: Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a major cause of insomnia, yet it’s often misdiagnosed. First, touch on central sleep apnea in infants and sudden infant death syndrome, then delve into the causes, signs, consequences, and treatments associated with obstructive sleep apnea—the most common form of the disorder in adults.

Duration: 30 min

21: Behavior during Sleep-Parasomnias

Make sense of various types of parasomnias—undesirable behaviors or phenomena that occur predominantly or exclusively during sleep—including sleepwalking, sleep-related eating disorder, night terrors, periodic limb movement, sleep paralysis, and sexsomnia. Then, consider how the legal principle of mens rea applies to sleepwalkers who have allegedly committed heinous crimes.

Duration: 30 min

22: Sleep and the Rest of the Body

Return to a question posed in the lecture on sleep in the animal kingdom: Why take the brain offline during sleep if the function of sleep is not for the brain? Look at experiments studying the effects of sleep loss on rats as you investigate sleep’s role in a range of physiological processes.

Duration: 31 min

23: Improving Sleep

How can you improve your quality of sleep? Start by delving into the efficacy and potential dangers of various pharmaceutical solutions to the problem of insomnia, including herbal remedies such as kava-kava and chamomile tea; barbiturates; benzodiazepines; caffeine; and amphetamines.

Duration: 31 min

24: Sleep in the Future and the Future of Sleep

Will we ever fully comprehend the function of sleep? See how sleep and treatment for sleep problems might change in years to come, and consider how continuing progress in understanding sleep’s role in learning and memory processes may enhance education and hold therapeutic potential for treating post-traumatic stress disorder.

Duration: 33 min