
Brain structure generates pockets of sleep within the brain - phodo
http://news.mit.edu/2015/brain-controls-sleep-1013
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JabavuAdams
The more I learn about the brain, the more unlikely it seems that proponents
of extreme polyphasic sleep are correct.

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seiji
Brains are good at habits and patterns. If you start to nap every day at 2pm,
you will begin to crave that nap every day until you de-condition yourself
from it. Not necessarily damaging or wrong or broken, just different patterns.

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JabavuAdams
Specifically, the claim that you can get all the sleep you need if you just
get your 15 min of REM each session. There's so much more going on than just
REM. Really, there's no good evidence for the claim that only REM is required.
Meanwhile sleep problems can have a huge impact on health.

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jacquesm
Very interesting, the silicon equivalent is a power saving measure, the brain
seems to have other uses for local reduction of activity.

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bcjordan
Neat, brain waves seem like the brain's global dispatch system.

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TeMPOraL
Is there any suggestion that regions of brain communicate wirelessly (or
"chemicallessly")?

I always thought brain waves are only artifacts of the flow of electrons
within the brain - a moving charge creates an EM field. In the same way one
could talk about "CPU waves" \- EM emissions generated by electricity flowing
through the processor.

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EazyC
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_field_potential](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_field_potential)

One of the most important ways the brain communicates is actually not just
ionically through chemo-ionic channels but through summed wave activity. This
is especially important in sleep and also during long term potentiation of
circuits.

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TeMPOraL
I don't see anything in this article implying that the brain actually reads
the "summed wave activity" somehow; as far as I understand, everything here is
just a description of how we measure and interpret EM fields generated by
charges flying around in the brain. Is there any study that shows that some
parts of the brain treat EM waves generated elsewhere as _input_?

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spin
Buzsaki argues, in this book, that brain waves are the method that the brain
uses to coordinate activity in different regions of the brain. (High-frequency
waves coordinate the activity of small areas, low-frequency waves coordinate
the activity of large areas.)

[http://www.amazon.com/Rhythms-Brain-Gyorgy-
Buzsaki/dp/019982...](http://www.amazon.com/Rhythms-Brain-Gyorgy-
Buzsaki/dp/0199828237)

If you're curious about brain waves, I highly recommend this book. It is
fascinating.

