User:Gorozco1/sandbox
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It is generally understood that the process regulating wakefulness and sleep is driven by circadian rhythms influenced by light-dark cycles. Even though it has been shown that this innate biological clock increases the physiological propensity for sleep during the later hours of the day when the sun is absent, a focus on this concept alone would afford only one-half of the underlying mechanism. The regulation of the sleep-wake cycle is a process warranting an explanation beyond what is offered by a simple discussion of circadian rhythms, and, as the title of this article has already insinuated, can be explained by a treatment of a two-process model: process-S and process-C. Process-S is less commonly known and represents a homeostatic drive for sleep that progressively increases during wakefulness decreasing only during NREM sleep; furthermore, process-C, which is more commonly known as circadian rhythms, represents a 24-hour internal oscillation of endogenous, entrainable bodily rhythms.[1] These two processes work in a synergistic way to promote sleep by combining naturally occurring rhythms with a homeostatic pressure system facilitated by the neuromodulator adenosine.