creators_name: Wallace, Rodrick
creators_id: New York State Psychiatric Institute
type: preprint
datestamp: 2005-08-02
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:56:08
metadata_visibility: show
title: The sleep cycle: a mathematical analysis from a global workspace perspective
subjects: cog-psy
full_text_status: public
keywords: AIM, consciousness, global workspace, information theory, phase transition, NREM, REM, sleep
abstract: Dretske's technique of invoking necessary conditions from information theory to describe mental process can be used to derive a version of Hobson's AIM treatment of the sleep/wake cycle from a mathematical formulation of Baars' Global Workspace model of consciousness. One implication of the analysis is that some sleep disorders may be recognizably similar to many other chronic, developmental dysfunctions, including autoimmune and coronary heart disease, obesity, hypertension, and anxiety disorder, in that these afflictions often have roots in utero or adverse early childhood experiences or exposures to systematic patterns of structured stress.  Identification and alteration of such factors might have considerable impact on population-level patterns of sleep disorders, suggesting the possibility of a public health approach rather than current exorbitantly expensive case-by-case medical intervention.
date: 2005
date_type: published
refereed: FALSE
citation:   Wallace, Rodrick  (2005) The sleep cycle: a mathematical analysis from a global workspace perspective.  [Preprint]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/4484/1/sleep3.pdf