Paul was awakened by a thumping noise in the middle of the night. Frightened, he jumped out of bed to investigate. Hearing a muffled meow, Paul realized that his cat was shut in the closet and was pushing against the door. Breathing a sigh of relief, Paul let the cat out of the closet and went back to bed. Which subdivision of the nervous system helped calm down and restore Paul's body functioning back to normal?

The autonomic nervous system has 3 divisions. One of them is the parasympathetic nervous system. The function of this system is to conserve energy by slowing down the heart rate, it also increases intestinal and gland activity and relaxes sphincter muscles. parasympathetic system conserves energy as it slows the heart rate, increases intestinal and gland activity, and relaxes sphincter muscles in the gastrointestinal tract.

While the sympathetic system prepares the body for high-energy activity, the parasympathetic nervous system relaxes the body and inhibits many high energy functions.

In this example, Paul was awakened frightened but he realized it was only the cat. The subdivision of the nervous system that helped him calm down and restore his function's back to normal would've been the parasympathetic system since it's the one in charge of relaxing the body.