How Biological Factors Influence An Individual's Behaviour Essay

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Explain how biological factors might influence an individual’s behavior when it comes to the sleep cycle identifying the biological rhythm involved. Give an example of a disruption to the biological rhymes and explain how this can affect behavior.
This essay will begin by explaining biological factors which may influence an individual’s behaviour when it comes to the sleep cycle. We will identify the biological rhythms that are involved in the process of sleep, we will do this by looking at the role of the pineal gland and the superchiasmatic nuclei also known as SCN. We will illustrate the biological factors involved with sleep and how and when this is disrupted and the affects this has on a person’s behaviour.
Biological cycles occur in …show more content…
These rhythmic cycles last less than a day and can also be linked to regulating your digestive system, absorbing what is required and disposing of anything that is not required. Ultradian rhythm is a process that occurs more than once in a 24 hour period. Another example in this cycle is your brain’s alertness during the day and while you are asleep (s-cool youth 2015). Studies have been undertaken in measuring sleep using an advanced piece of technology that can record the electrical changes in the scalp. These studies suggest that we enter four stages of sleep over a ninety minute time scale (Atkinson, Atkinson & Smith1993ch6). During this sleep cycle our biological clocks are still working although we are not consciously aware of the process of entering the five stages of sleep that consists of rapid eye movement and non- rapid eye movement in a ninety minute time scale.
The first stage is when you are just beginning to fall asleep. Some people reported that they were not really sleeping when aroused within the first five to ten minutes of falling asleep. During stage two your heart rate slows down and your brains activity is reduced. However it has episodes or outburst of activity know as sleep spindles and it is believed you stay in this stage for approximately 20 minutes before moving into the third
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