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Awakening Latency From Sleep For Meaningful and Non‐Meaningful Stimuli
Author(s) -
Langford G. W.,
Meddis R.,
Pearson A. J. D.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1974.tb00815.x
Subject(s) - psychology , stimulus (psychology) , audiology , latency (audio) , sleep onset , perception , sleep (system call) , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , insomnia , psychiatry , medicine , electrical engineering , computer science , engineering , operating system
Personally significant and non‐significant low intensity sound stimuli were used to determine awakening latencies from sleep stages REM and 2. Latency was measured from stimulus onset to a) the sleeper's own acknowledgement of waking, and b) alpha rhythm onset. Both stimuli were presented twice, once in each sleep stage, to 8 S s. Voluntary response latencies in REM were shorter than in stage 2 ( p <.025) but no difference was found for the latency of alpha rhythm onset. The personally significant stimulus, however, caused a significantly shorter awakening latency using both criteria. The results suggest that perceptual thresholds are low in both sleep stages 2 and REM but that the ability or willingness to organize a response is greater in REM sleep.