The Idea of an Essay, Volume 2

143 such a significant portion of their lives unconscious and completely inactive. Modern discoveries concerning sleep, however, reveal that this perspective—viewing sleep as an expression of laziness— rings hollow with falsehood. The fact that humans sleep remains undeniable, but scientists continue to broaden their understanding in discovering the true details of this process. With this continually growing breadth of knowledge, scientists can now make claims as to the importance of the processes that take place during such activity and how they play into the differentiation between adequate and inadequate amounts of sleep. In the early 1900s, the invention of a new technology, the electroencephalogram (EEG), led to a scientific breakthrough. The initial use of an EEG involved placing electrodes externally on the patient to monitor electrical impulses within his or her body. Shortly thereafter, scientists discovered certain reactions taking place within the brain that produced an electrical current similar to those studied throughout the body (Epstein and Mardon 11-12). This finding allowed for utilization of such tests in studying the brain. Subsequently, in 1929, Hans Berger, “known as the father of EEG,” used this technique to document the first ever recordings of human sleep (Pressman and Orr 12). In more recent studies, researchers utilize “a standard sleep recording, called a polysomnogram, [which] is a continuous, all-night tracing of electroencephalographic (brain-wave), electrooculographic (eye movement), and submental electromyographic (chinmuscle) events” (Pressman andOrr 14). In others words, these studies involve analysis of more than simply brain waves – they also monitor patterns of eye movement as well as the electrical activity within the facial muscles. Scientists then compare such measurements to that recorded during the waking hours. According to A Good Night’s Sleep by Lawrence Epstein, M.D., and his coauthor, Steven Mardon, “The brain was not passively and uniformly shutting down during sleep but rather passing through several different patterns of activity in an orderly fashion” (12-13). This confirmation of brain activity revolutionized the study of sleep. Following the discovery of sleep’s systematic nature, scientists categorized it into five major steps known as the sleep cycle. The main qualitative division they found led to the classification of the first four stages as non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, and the