Sleep is not one thing, it is a process that is ongoing and advancing until waking (Porkka-Heiskanen et al., 2013). Non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM) sleep and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep are two phases of sleep that are the most important. The process of sleep entails periods of cortical activity restricted by activity when the cortex grasps the level of waking activity (Porkka-Heiskanen et al., 2013). Common experiences, evidence, recent experiments, and research show that short term sleep and long term sleep have a relationship with various diseases (Porkka-Heiskanen et al., …show more content…
Memory and learning can be heightened from sleep, and with too little sleep, performance on cognitive tasks declines (Porkka-Heiskanen et al., 2013). During waking, ciphering of new information occurs and also a process of memory consolidation occurs (Porkka-Heiskanen et al., 2013). During memory consolidation, new memories are transformed into more stable memories and assimilates those memories with memories that previously existed (Porkka-Heiskanen et al., 2013). The finding of different forms of memory benefitting more from sleep than other forms was divided into two hypotheses; the dual-process hypothesis stating that REM sleep is more important for non-declarative memory and NREM sleep is beneficial to declarative memory (Porkka-Heiskanen et al., 2013). The sequential hypothesis states that sleep cycles that follow both NREM sleep and REM sleep are beneficial for both types of memory (Porkka-Heiskanen et al.,