• Question: why do people sleep all night without waking up

    Asked by cutepug133 to Anna on 9 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Anna Ashton

      Anna Ashton answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      Hi cutepug133,

      I know one of the reasons for this is melatonin. It is a hormone that is made during the night and it makes you sleepy. Older people don’t make as much melatonin as younger people and scientists think this is why they don’t sleep as well.

      There are other things that help you stay asleep too, but I don’t know very much about these as it’s not my area of research. I know that you have different stages of sleep with each one causing a different type of electrical activity in your brain. In some stages you sleep really deeply so it would be hard to wake up during these and you’d feel pretty confused if you did!

      Thanks for the question 🙂

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