SLOW-WAVE SLEEP Definition & Meaning

slow-wave sleep

[ sloh-weyv sleep ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Physiology.

a recurrent period of deep sleep, typically totaling five or six hours a night, distinguished by the presence of slow brain waves and by very little dreaming. : SWS Compare REM sleep ( def ).

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of slow-wave sleep¹

First recorded in 1965–70; slow ( def ) + wave ( def )

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Prior to this research, scientists already understood that each night, memories transfer from short-term storage in the hippocampus to long-term storage in the neocortex during slow-wave sleep.

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Thanks to electroencephalography, researchers can even link slow-wave sleep to a process of synchronous changes in electrical voltages in thousands of neurons, known as up and down states.

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Neurons in the neocortex: Slow-wave sleep strengthens the connections between them, supporting memory formation.

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Pink noise has a frequency profile “very similar to the distribution of brain wave frequencies we see in slow-wave sleep because these are large, slow waves,” said Dr. Roneil Malkani, associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

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Saturated fats, such as that in burgers and fries and processed foods, could lead to less slow-wave sleep, which is considered the most restorative sleep.

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