When a person sleeps, the muscles are relaxed. Frequent awakenings at night (intermittent sleep)

“Elena, if you find information on how positions in a dream can determine the onset of illness, then be sure to share with us. I think such information will be interesting not only to me, but to other readers too!” (From comments)

Our body is an unusually harmonious and intelligent system. Any violation of the mental or physical state finds its own body positions in a dream long before the onset of the disease. To alleviate physical discomfort, a person takes a forced position that is often uncomfortable for him.

When the pain passes (under the influence of pain medication or as a result of a cure), we are happy to return to our favorite position. Which clearly demonstrates the close relationship of a person's individuality with the sleeping position in which he spends most of the night.

I welcome you, friends, to the pages of the site about the phenomenon of sleep and the quality of life. In this article: how our sleeping positions change due to illness, what is the most correct sleeping position , impact of habitual postures on health.

How the position of the body changes as a result of the disease

The disease begins with unpleasant pain. Moreover, in the bustle of the day, we can long time do not attach importance to tingling under the shoulder blade, fatigue of the legs or numbness of the hands, explaining these symptoms with anything: physical activity, nervous tension, stress and so on. However, our body, unlike the busy ones, is sensitive to any failure in the body and responds by changing the position of the body during sleep, relieving pressure in the area where the diseased organ is located.

Depression, low blood pressure, neurosis, stomach ulcer. With these diseases, a person intuitively takes the most sparing position of the "embryo" (position on the side, knees pulled up to the body).

Cervical osteochondrosis, tonsillitis, rhinitis, sinusitis, sinusitis- position on the side, hands are placed under the cheek or pillow.

Heart diseases- on the back with arms thrown up or half-sitting on high pillows.

If you wake up in the morning in a royal pose, and your hands are thrown behind your head, and this position was not typical for you before, it does not hurt to contact a cardiologist.

When we take a horizontal position, the inflow to the heart venous blood increases. The heart, in case of heart failure, is not able to cope with a large influx of blood, it stagnates in the lungs and, as a result, shortness of breath and shortness of breath, which disappear with an upright position. This forces a person to take a position close to vertical in a dream, putting high pillows under his back and head.

As the disease progresses, a person needs more and more pillows. Hearts feel their helplessness before the world of sleep and horizontal position bodies, difficulties with blood circulation force them to seek support for their existence, at least with the help of pillows.

High blood pressure- position on the back.

Diseases of the spine and gastrointestinal tract- postures in the "embryo" and on the stomach, which allow you to reduce pressure on the vertebral discs and unload the back.

Circulatory disorders in the legs- a person sleeps on his back, legs bent at the knees. This pose is also taken if the legs are very tired. It facilitates blood circulation, the work of the heart, allows you to unload the veins.

liver disease, right kidney, diabetes - sleep on the left side.

asthmatic bronchitis- the person lies on his back with his head thrown back. This posture contributes to better ventilation of the lungs, which means better access to oxygen in the body.

Diseases auditory nerve - the “ostrich” position, when a person covers his head with a pillow during sleep.

One lady, who underwent surgery to remove a tumor of the right auditory nerve and completely lost her hearing, shared the details of the development of the disease.

Previously, a woman constantly slept on her left side in the “half-embryo” position, and over the past ten years she began to cover her head with a pillow, so that it was located directly on her right ear. In the process of tumor growth, the lady developed constant noise in her ears (tinnitus), which she tried to get rid of by covering her ear with a pillow in her sleep.

The neurosurgeon who performed the operation suggested that the disease had developed over a decade. It turns out that the early stage of the disease coincided with the transition from the “half-embryo” position in a dream to. If medicine could decipher the signals of the body transmitted by sleeping positions, then it would be possible to detect the development of a tumor on early stage and save the woman's hearing.

This case from the practice of the American psychiatrist S. Dunkell clearly confirms that the sleeping posture can warn about the disease in advance.

If you begin to wake up in a position that is not typical for you, I advise you to listen to your health.

Why you need to sleep in the right position

Let's start with anatomy

The human brain has quite small size(only 2% of the total body weight), but the resources are enormous. When we sleep, the brain continues to work, "taking" 15% of the blood from the total blood flow and 20% of the oxygen that we receive when we breathe.

The brain is supplied with blood and oxygen through two carotid and two vertebral arteries. The vertebral arteries pass through the canal, which form the transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae, and provide nutrition mainly to the posterior parts of the brain (cerebellum, pons, medulla oblongata).

If the blood supply to these departments is not enough, then the functions corresponding to them in the body suffer: the cerebellum - coordination and accuracy of movements, the oblong bridge and the pons Varolii - digestion, respiration, vascular tone and heart function.

What are the dangers of incorrect postures

Compression of both or one vertebral artery during sleep is very dangerous. Even if one artery is clamped, the other may not be able to handle the increased blood flow - it may turn out to be very narrow to work for two (the diameter of the arteries sometimes differs from each other by 2 times) or it may turn out to be blocked by an atherosclerotic plaque.

When the blood supply through the two paired arteries supplying the brain is disturbed, hypoxia appears or oxygen starvation brain cells that are sensitive to the lack of oxygen. For example, the kidneys or liver can be without oxygen for several hours, the brain can only last about 5-10 minutes. At the same time, in the areas of the brain responsible for intelligence and memory, irreversible processes begin within a minute.

Thus, We needprotect and cherish our vertebral arteries, which provide us with a full life. When you go to bed, take care that these arteries do not get squeezed during sleep.

Of great importance is the choice of a pillow, which should provide support to the cervical vertebrae, keep the head position natural, as in a standing position. It is better to choose a pillow of medium height or orthopedic. The shoulders should not be on the pillow, but on the mattress. More details in the video at the end of the article and.

How to sleep is bad

Consider postures that can provoke the sad consequences described above.

Sleeping on high pillows or on your stomach may lead to the development cervical osteochondrosis and cause a stroke (in older people). Strokes most often occur in the early hours of the morning, when the person in the wrong position has spent most of the night.

Sleep on a high pillow on your side has the same dangerous consequences. One vertebral artery is squeezed, and the second may not be able to cope.

in the prone position a twisted neck compresses the throat, the carotid artery near the clavicle, one of the paired vertebral arteries, the second may not work well due to atherosclerosis. All this makes breathing, blood flow and oxygen supply to the brain difficult.

In addition, the sleeper is squeezed rib cage, which in normal condition must have a large amplitude so that the diaphragm can expand and the lungs fill with air. When squeezing the lungs, the renewal of air in them occurs defectively. AT young age it is not very scary, but in the elderly it can lead to death.

Sleep on the stomach with the arms stretched out above the head. A person sleeping in this position exposes himself dangerous disease- brachioplexus syndrome. Nerve endings and blood vessels are compressed due to strong tension in the muscles of the forearm, which makes the hands ache and go numb.

Moreover, the head turned to one side pinches the carotid artery in the region of the collarbone, compresses the muscles of the throat and neck, which makes it difficult for blood circulation and breathing, the supply of oxygen to the brain.

Sleep sitting stretches intervertebral discs resulting in pain and swelling in the neck area. It's about about posture when strongly sitting in public transport or at the table.

Sleeping on a very hard bed can lead to straightening of the physiological curves of the spine in the neck and lower back. As a result, a high load is placed on the intervertebral discs, painful and local edema, over time, the discs become deformed and the pain becomes constant, osteochondrosis develops.

Sleep without a pillow straightens the physiological cervical bend and leads to deformation of the cervical discs and osteochondrosis.

Sleep on your back disrupts the rhythm of breathing (if the muscles of the palate and throat are weakened or have a birth defect), which leads to. That is why the royal pose is called the “sudden death pose”.

The most correct posture

Sleep on your side considered the most comfortable under the following conditions:

However, sleeping on your right side can put extra stress on your liver and lead to wrinkles.

Sleep on your back is recognized by many physicians as quite physiological: the vertebral discs are unloaded as much as possible, the blood circulates normally. This pose is most indicated for hypertensive patients, people prone to heart disease, suffering from heartburn.

It is very difficult to accustom yourself to an unusual position in a dream, because the sleeping postures reflect the nature of our personality, and correspond to the nature and type of psychological protection.

I hope, friends, the article turned out to be useful, and you found the answer to your questions, how diseases affect sleeping postures, which posture during sleep is correct.

Smile! Sleeping on your back is dangerous when you snore, sleeping on your stomach is dangerous when vascular diseases, sleeping on the left side is dangerous for the heart, sleeping on the right side is dangerous for the liver. Magazine "Health" wishes you pleasant dreams! :-D

Very often, patients suffering from frequent nocturnal awakenings turn to a somnologist, and in his absence, to a psychiatrist or neurologist. Usually, the state of awakening is associated with neurological, psychiatric or general somatic diseases. Also, this type of sleep pathology is a constant companion of those who abuse alcohol or drugs citizens. All sorts of stresses and seasonal depressions play an important role in the development of sleep disorders.

By themselves, frequent nighttime awakenings are not a problem that causes serious harm to health. However, people, as a rule, take this too seriously, and instead of continuing to sleep peacefully, they begin to worry, think about how to fall asleep, look for the reason for the interruption of sleep, which leads to the loss of a sleepy state. However, the usual simple relaxation is the most correct behavior, as a result of which a person falls asleep and almost completely sleeps.

According to the classification of sleep disorders intermittent sleep and early awakenings belong to the category of insomnia - sleep disturbances. Frequent nocturnal awakenings are characteristic of emotional, anxious, impressionable natures.. They are based on the state of continuing processing by the brain of psycho-emotional information received during the day. It is because of this that sleep remains superficial. long time and breaks easily.

Interrupted sleep in infants is even more common occurrence, which occurs due to the fact that the phases of sleep in babies are replaced more often than in adults. This condition is also not a problem, and only if the child becomes lethargic, constantly sleepy and begins to act up, you should contact a pediatrician or a neurologist.

If usually sleep is normal and suddenly frequent nighttime awakenings began to bother you, you need to look for external stimuli. Maybe it's a newly installed lantern outside the window, the heating is on and, as a result, it's too hot in the bedroom and the air is dry, maybe you bought a mattress that you can't get used to, or new smells have appeared in the house (from pets).

“I wake up at 3 am and then I can’t sleep” is another common complaint. Or wake up in the middle of the night. The fact is that at about three o'clock in the morning the temperature of the human body is the maximum for the entire time of sleep, which can also lead to awakening. Do not focus on this phenomenon. It is the nervousness due to such physiological features prevent you from sleeping.

“I often wake up at night, and then I can’t sleep,” such complaints can often be heard from people most different ages, professions and social groups. Most common causes sleep disorders is a simple lack of sleep hygiene. Falling asleep when you have to, falling asleep in front of the TV, plentiful food right before bedtime, too warm bedroom - these are the simplest factors, by eliminating which, many can quickly restore the quality of sleep and sleep until morning, as they say, without hind legs. Some make the mistake of starting to fight insomnia with a bottle of beer before bed. Alcohol only excites nervous system and leads to the opposite result.

The quality of a mattress should not be underestimated: the continuity of sleep and its depth also strongly depend on its properties. A certain role is played by the presence of a partner in the same bed. And although people subjectively believe that sleep together is deeper, calmer and of higher quality, however, according to objective studies (polysomnography), sleep together is inferior in quality to sleep alone, when a person is the only rightful owner of the entire bed.

There are many physiological reasons, which are the cause of intermittent shallow sleep:

• older people often wake up in the middle of the night and take a nap during the day;
• women wake up due to hormonal changes occurring in them every month;
• pregnant women often wake up at night for all sorts of reasons: cramps due to lack of minerals, frequent urges to urination, fetal movements;
• at the onset of menopause, women can also often wake up due to sweating, fever, and other physiological manifestations of the condition.

Often there are sleep disturbances that occur due to changes in the sleep/wake cycle associated with working on a night or daily schedule, frequent air travel with changing time zones. In these cases, the work of the internal clock is simply disrupted in a person. This is a situational pathology associated with the functioning of biological rhythms.

It is impossible not to mention the role of the well-known sleep hormone, melatonin, in the formation of a good sleep. Melatonin is formed from serotonin, which in turn is formed every day in the human body when it is outdoors under the influence of sun rays not less than 30-40 minutes. Seratonin is converted to melatonin, a high concentration of which in the body by the end of the day contributes to deep sleep. Melatonin and seratonin do not accumulate in the body, so in order to sleep well, you need to get your portion of sunlight during the day.

Also, people may often wake up at night due to painful conditions: with arthrosis, osteochondrosis, diabetes, thyroid diseases, of cardio-vascular system. In all cases where you suspect that a disease is the cause of poor sleep, you need to contact a specialist and treat the underlying disease.

Waking at night with difficulty falling asleep

This kind of insomnia as frequent awakenings at night is a disease modern civilization and occurs in almost a third of the total population. The criterion for believing that you have chronic insomnia is the presence of complaints about bad dream most days of the week for more than three months. When chronic pathology patients are concerned about fatigue during the day, deterioration in attention and memory, irritability, drowsiness during the day, headache or gastrointestinal problems. Also start psychological problems due to worries about sleep: a person before falling asleep is afraid that he will not get enough sleep again and because of his worries he can no longer fall asleep, which can provoke real insomnia.

There are also hereditary forms of the disease. People with these forms report interrupted sleep with childhood. Their parents are also diagnosed with the same condition. Usually this is a defect in hormone metabolism, which is normalized by medication.

Diagnostics

If you are concerned about frequent awakenings at night, see a sleep specialist. A sleep doctor analyzes the quality of sleep using a polysomnographic study. This method combines simultaneous registration of ECG, electroencephalography, electromyography, audio monitoring of snoring, analyzes limb movements, respiratory movements, reads body temperature, pulse, blood pressure and other indicators. The data obtained allow us to estimate the duration of sleep, the number of awakenings, the distribution of phases, respiratory disorders, heart rate, identify abnormal movements and diagnose the type and type of parasomnias.

Polysomnography is especially helpful when a person comes in and tells me that I seem to wake up every time. But in fact, research shows that a person sleeps very soundly and he simply dreams of this state. This state of imaginary waking up is also quite common.

How to overcome frequent nighttime awakenings

To restore normal sleep and not wake up often in a dream, you need to follow some simple rules before going to bed:

1. Comfortable temperature in the bedroom should be no higher than 18-20 degrees.
2. Silence and darkness are the best companions of normal falling asleep.
3. You need to have dinner no later than two hours before bedtime, and fatty and spicy dishes should be excluded from the menu.
4. Avoid alcohol and caffeine 3 hours before bed.
5. No need to think about important things before going to bed.
6. It is important to go to bed at the same time every day.
7. You should not fill up during the day, even if there is a feeling of drowsiness - it is better to overcome it.
8. Sleep should last no less and no more than 6-8 hours. Too much sleep is just as bad as too little sleep.
9. An hour before bedtime, you should stop working at the computer and watching television.
10. An hour before going to bed should be devoted to relaxation - take a relaxing warm bath, take care of yourself, listen to pleasant music.
11. At night, you can drink a glass of herbal tea or milk with honey.

And only if in spite of everything Taken measures, sudden awakenings occur at least three times a week and last at least half an hour, within a month, you must consult a doctor for advice. Under no circumstances should you resort to medications. You can meet people who take tonics in the morning to cheer up, and sleeping pills in the evening. Self-treatment gradually depletes the body's reserve forces, not only not restoring sleep, but also not giving even a temporary feeling of rest and contributing to the development of chronic psychosomatic diseases.

How often do you wake up at night?

While we sleep, our body continues to work actively. Some processes in it are activated, others, on the contrary, stop. We can't take care of our bodies while we sleep. After all, nothing is happening to us.

Nose is sleeping

“You can’t wake me up with guns,” lovers of sweet sleep confidently declare. In fact, sharp sounds, regardless of the nature of their occurrence, take a person out of the stage of any, even the deepest sleep, and the principle of the alarm clock is based on this. However, it is interesting that even the most active smells perceived in a dream are not able to awaken the sleeper, although the brain identifies them.

Most likely, the information received by the olfactory organs will smoothly merge with the picture projected by the brain, and while your soul mate frantically runs around with a cup of coffee, you will simply continue drinking coffee on top of the Eiffel Tower in your dream.

Neither the sharp smell of pyridine, nor the pleasant smell of mint, which were used in their experiment by scientists at Brown University (USA), did not awaken the participants in the experiment. This explains the large percentage of deaths sleeping during a fire - a person simply does not notice the intense smell of burning.

Sleep movements

It would seem that the lying position and the absence of the need for physical and mental activity should be expressed in a state of absolute rest. In fact, the body continues to respond to third-party stimuli, such as light, noise, room temperature.

Due to gravity, areas of the body in contact with the surface are subject to maximum pressure, which makes it necessary to change position several times during sleep. Average, healthy man makes about 25 different movements during several hours of sleep.

At the same time, 70% of them adversely affect the intensity of sleep, preventing us from reaching its deep phase, which is necessary for good rest and energy recovery. During deep sleep, most of the muscles relax but are not paralyzed, keeping the sleeper from being overly active. These processes explain the danger of sleeping while intoxicated, when a person does not change position for several hours, which is fraught with high blood pressure on certain parts of the body and the prospect of neuropathy.

Sleeper's eyes

AT initial stage sleep, the eyes roll up, excluding light from reaching the retina, even with half-open eyelids. By the way, by the eyes you can determine in which phase of sleep the sleeping person is.

In deep sleep eyeballs move slowly under the eyelid due to the active blood flow to the muscles and internal organs. The deepest sleep phase is also characterized by slow eye movements, but it also reduces the heart rate and the overall rhythm of life. And during REM sleep, blood supplies the brain of the sleeping person, thought processes, we see colorful pictures of sleep, and the eyes move in accordance with them. These processes are universal for both humans and animals - watch a sleeping cat and understand what trajectory the sparrow flew in her dream today.

The morning is wiser than the evening

The brain, of course, does not turn off during sleep, but only switches to another mode of operation, continuing to control the ongoing processes in the body. Brain cells reduce the speed of reaction to peripheral stimuli and begin to work on the ordering and classification of information received during wakefulness.

These data are sorted, compared with those already available and sent to the appropriate areas of the brain for storage. Constant lack of sleep takes time to process information, as a result of which the data is confused, and the person begins to complain about the state of memory.

In 2004, German scientists from the University of Luxembourg taught a group of volunteers to solve math problems certain level. Participants were offered about 100 tasks. After the first part of the practical training, half of the students were offered twelve hours of sleep, while the others were awake.

In the second part of the seminar, 23% of those who were awake suggested best option problem solving, while in the group of those who managed to sleep, this figure was 59%. This proves that during sleep, information is compared and ordered, allowing you to find the optimal solution to an existing problem, which a waking person is not even aware of.

Brain cleansing

There are two modes brain activity- a mode of wakefulness, when a person actively thinks, thinks logically and makes decisions, as well as a mode of sleep or "washing" spaces with cerebrospinal fluid nervous tissue when we rest.

Toxins are concentrated not only in the kidneys and liver, but also in the brain fluid of the body. It is during sleep that the glial cells that surround and support brain neurons shrink, thereby increasing the intercellular space and increasing the flow of fluid that removes toxins from the brain.

During sleep, the glymphatic system increases its activity by about 10 times. If this does not happen, then plaques are formed from the existing toxic proteins in the brain, leading to the development of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Unfortunately, the pumping of fluid through the brain tissue requires high energy costs and is incompatible with information processing processes, so living organisms cannot do without a full-fledged long sleep.

Height and weight

“Flying means growing!”, Mom used to say in childhood. We hasten to please - it is not at all necessary to experience the state of flight in a dream, and if you measure your height before going to bed and immediately after waking up, then in the second case you will find "added" 05.-1 centimeter.

During sleep, the load on the intervertebral discs is reduced, they are moistened, stretched and take up more space without being subjected to body pressure. Thus, the spine straightens, although in the evening, especially after a long vertical wakefulness, growth returns to its original parameters.

Sleep also releases the hormone leptin, which reduces hunger, while lack of sleep will boost the production of the opposite hormone, ghrelin, which increases appetite. True, for the active work of the first one, you need to sleep for at least seven hours, and lack of sleep (4-5 hours a day) actively prevents the reset excess weight, even with a strict diet and physical training.

If you overeat before bed, it is best to sleep on your right side, this will allow the stomach and intestines to cope with the load. Of course, you should eat food no later than 3-4 hours before bedtime, and then you are guaranteed a healing effect.

Rejuvenating effect

Sophia Loren claimed that the secret of her beauty is a good sleep. We have no doubts about the veracity of this statement. During sleep, body temperature drops and blood pressure, relaxes and restores the heart muscle, the body goes into the mode of conservation and accumulation of energy.

In addition to these processes, the production of collagen, a protein that strengthens blood vessels and gives the skin elasticity, increases. Due to these properties, collagen is often used in cosmetic procedures and creams, but nothing can replace its natural production by the body.

For this reason, creams containing retinoids that promote collagen production are recommended to be used before bed. In addition, body tissues are renewed during sleep, but the production of growth hormone, somatotropin, can be hindered. elevated level insulin. Therefore, if you plan to get all the benefits of sleep, you should not get used to a late dinner.

During sleep, the cleansing of skin cells is accelerated (especially in the first half of the night), oxygen metabolism improves, toxins are removed and tissue strength increases, which leads to a decrease in wrinkles, an increase in elasticity and a visible rejuvenating effect.

It is necessary to sleep qualitatively and fully - our life activity directly depends on this. If the body experiences a lack of sleep, it will worsen and mental capacity, and the physical state. We do not notice the lack of sleep at first, but it Negative consequences have a tendency to accumulate. To understand why sleep is so important for us, we decided to tell you about some of the facts that happen to our body during sleep. If you think that the body is completely relaxed, then you are deeply mistaken!

1. Body temperature drops
   From the usual 36.6 degrees Celsius for us (and who has more), it drops by about 1-1.5 degrees. Due to the fact that all the muscles are in a relaxed state, the body spends much less calories, and therefore the temperature decreases. Scientists have proven that it will be the lowest per day at about 3 o'clock in the morning.
2. Blood pressure drops
   This, again, is because the body is not moving, the blood does not have to circulate rapidly, delivering energy and nutrients to the muscles and organs. Therefore, it runs through the vessels more slowly, which causes the pressure to decrease - by about 5-7 millimeters of mercury.
3. Body twitches and eyes move
   Sometimes we experience involuntary twitches of the muscles of the body, mainly the limbs - arms or legs. This happens in the first stage of sleep, still in the falling asleep phase. And since the brain is not yet completely turned off, we ourselves sometimes notice this. Moreover, the whites of our eyes move - the movements will be more frequent and intense in the REM phase of sleep, and slower, but still obvious, in the slow phase.
4. Skin cells are restored
   During a good full sleep, the breakdown of proteins decreases. That is, this is the very time when amino acids enter our cells in order to restore their damaged structure or give impetus to the emergence of new cells. This is especially true for the cells of the dermis and epidermis. Therefore, sleep is so important for the beauty of the face and body.
5. Toxins are cleared
   This process is most activated during sleep. Slags accumulate in the intestines, pass through the liver, settle in bladder. That is why after sleep, doctors recommend drinking a glass of water, and then wait until you go to the toilet, and only then have breakfast.
6. Hormones are produced
   Despite the fact that during the day the level of a particular hormone in the blood can jump sharply (for example, insulin after eating sweets, cortisol after stress, ghrelin if you are hungry, etc.), most of the vital hormones are synthesized precisely at night, while you sleep.
7. The immune system is fully functional
   At night, immunity turns on to the fullest and begins to look for weaknesses in our body, trying to protect them. Scientists even conducted an interesting experiment. If a person is vaccinated against the flu, antibodies will begin to develop in about 10-20 hours. So, if he is not allowed to go to bed that day, the production of antibodies can be delayed for two days, or even more. It is because the immune system does not want to work without sleep.
8. The pain threshold is lowered
   Due to the fact that our body is completely relaxed, not only the muscles, but also the nerve endings relax. They work so slowly that they cannot transmit pain signals to the brain. And not only pain, but also a variety of other feelings - smell, touch, hearing, etc.
9. The brain is cleared
   Yes, in the literal sense of the word. The brain does not relax, but continues to work quite actively. And it is in a dream, when external stimuli are turned off, that he begins to “put things in order” inside himself. At the same time, he gets rid of unnecessary information, freeing up new memory cells to remember something really important.
10. The brain is able to make decisions
    Remember the saying "Morning is wiser than evening"? So, she appeared absolutely justified. It turns out that while you sleep, the brain is able to make decisions. Sometimes it can be a solution to some problem that you have been unable to cope with for a long time, sometimes it can be drawing up an action plan before a future important event, sometimes it can be some kind of discovery.
11. Decreased weight
    Yes, the changes that have taken place during sleep are not too noticeable. But if during the day we constantly consume calories and eat something, then at night this does not happen. And the basic metabolism continues to work and spend energy. So, if you want to lose weight, do not forget about a full sleep.
12. Your height increases
    Yes, this is not a joke. During sleep, the spine relaxes as much as possible, as it does not experience stress, and, accordingly, lengthens. Therefore, our growth becomes higher - even by a few centimeters. Check it out for yourself - measure your height in the morning and evening after have a hard day, and compare the results.
13. You keep waking up
    Paradoxical, right? It turns out that we wake up many times during the night, and usually this happens when we move from one phase of sleep to another. But these awakenings are so short that you simply won't remember them. Unless, if you roll over for convenience on the other side.
14. You can talk in your sleep
    Involuntary muttering or even slurred speech during sleep is one of the varieties of parasomnia (it also includes sleepwalking). Some people are subject to it, and some are not. And when you try to listen to your partner's speech during his nightly conversations, you can hear a lot of interesting things.
15. Sexual arousal occurs
    This is one of the most enjoyable moments. Moreover, in a dream, many can even experience an orgasm. The vessels are dilated, the blood circulates freely throughout the body, and therefore rushes to all organs, including the genitals, and you can feel sexual arousal.

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The biological need of the body. It helps to restore human immunity, streamline the information received during wakefulness and support many more processes, which, by the way, have not been fully studied. We will talk more about what happens to a person during sleep.

sleep stages

Our soul and body require rest, and the most indispensable in this regard is sleep. Having missed it for some reason, we will feel that we cannot move normally, as coordination has been disturbed, and memory and the ability to concentrate have noticeably weakened. If the lack of sleep becomes prolonged, then all these symptoms are fixed, intensified and, by the way, become irreversible. No wonder sleep deprivation has always been considered cruel torture.

For the average 8 hours a person allotted for a healthy night's rest, he has 5 lasting up to 100 minutes. Moreover, each of them has two phases - slow and fast sleep. How do they flow?

To understand what happens during sleep, let's take a closer look at its stages.

REM sleep

A person who is tired or has not slept well on the eve falls asleep at the slightest opportunity and immediately enters the phase of the so-called fast or paradoxical sleep.

It was named so because at this time, the sleeping electroencephalogram, heart rate and respiration rates are similar to those of an awake person, but almost all muscles (except for the diaphragm, muscles auditory ossicles, as well as holding the eyelids and moving the eyeball) completely lose their tone. That is, what happens during sleep in its fast (paradoxical) phase can be characterized as follows: the body is already sleeping, but the brain is still working. By the way, it is at this time that we see the most vivid and easily remembered dreams.

After 20 minutes from the start of falling asleep, a person enters the phase slow sleep.

What happens during non-REM sleep

Slow-wave sleep, experts have found, accounts for 75% of all night rest. It is customary to consider several stages of this phase.

1. Drowsiness. If you are healthy and go to bed on time, then it takes 5-10 minutes, during which you fall into a deeper sleep.
2. Dive into sleep. This stage usually lasts about 20 minutes. What happens in the body during sleep at this stage? The process is characterized by a slowing of the heartbeat, a decrease in body temperature and the appearance on the EEG of the so-called "sleep spindles" (short bursts of brain activity with a low amplitude), during which a person's consciousness is practically turned off.
3. Deep dream.
4. The deepest delta sleep. Sleeping at this time is difficult to wake up. And even when he wakes up, he can not come to his senses for a long time. It is at this stage that manifestations of sleepwalking, enuresis, talking in a dream and nightmares are possible.

Then the person, as if starting to wake up, enters a state of REM sleep. Such phase changes occur throughout the rest, and if the latter was sufficient, then, upon waking up, a person feels fresh, cheerful, renewed.

Physiological processes that occur during sleep

In the body of a sleeping person, despite his external immobility, relaxation and lack of reaction to stimuli (of course, if they are not very strong), many processes take place.

• A lot of moisture tends to evaporate through the skin at this time, resulting in a slight weight loss.
• Increases the production of a special protein - collagen, which, by the way, contributes to the strengthening of blood vessels and the restoration of skin elasticity. Apparently, movie and pop stars are not cunning when they say that a good 8-hour sleep helps them look good (although it’s worth clarifying: not immediately after a heavy dinner).
• In addition, a person grows in a dream (yes, this is not at all the invention of mothers and grandmothers who do not know how to put a restless child to bed), since his growth hormone at this time has the highest concentration in the blood.
• As a person sinks into sleep, almost all the muscles of the body relax one by one, except for those that keep the eyelids closed. They remain tense, and the eyeballs under them move, which, by the way, indicates the stage of deep slow sleep.

As you can see, the processes in the body during sleep are diverse - with their help, a kind of cleaning is carried out, preparing the body for daytime wakefulness.

Why does the brain need sleep?

Probably everyone knows that our brain is not idle during sleep. During the period of night rest, he practically stops responding to external stimuli and concentrates on internal needs, performing the main task at that moment - sorting and processing daytime information and sending it for storage to the appropriate sections of the “territory entrusted to him”.

By the way, thanks to this process, everything that happens to the brain during sleep can be considered a kind of “general cleaning”. It helps us to wake up in the morning with a different - clear and logical - look at the problems that seemed unsolvable just yesterday. And schoolchildren and students have been using this for a long time, noting that it is the material that you study before going to bed that is best remembered.

If a person has a regular brain, there is not enough time to structure and hammer the information received into “memory cells”, which leads to complaints of fog in the head and severe memory impairment.

How brainwashing happens

Asking the question: “What happens in the body during sleep?”, The researchers found that such a state for the cells and tissues of the brain is akin to a kind of “cleansing enema”. After all, toxins that enter the body with food or as a result of failures caused by stress settle not only in the gastrointestinal tract, liver or kidneys. They, it turns out, accumulate in the cerebral fluid, both in the spine and in the cranium.

During sleep, the surrounding neurons shrivel up, shrinking in size, causing the intercellular space to become larger and allow more fluid to pass through. And she, in turn, flushes out toxins from nerve tissues, saving us from the formation of protein plaques that would make it difficult to transmit signals between neurons and would contribute to the early development of Parkinson's or Alzheimer's diseases.

What does a person need to sleep?

So, we discussed what happens in the body during sleep. To rest and to rise after it vigorous and renewed, each of us needs different time. In total, people spend an average of five to ten hours a day sleeping. Somnologists (specialists dealing with the problems of sleep and its impact on human health) believe that it is still much more important for us not the quantity, but the quality of a night's rest.

It has been noticed that people who sleep calmly and rarely change their position feel more alert and rested in the morning than those who toss and turn a lot. But why, having taken a seemingly comfortable position in bed, we nevertheless change our position? It turns out that our nightly body movements largely depend on external stimuli- flashes of light, noise, changes in air temperature, movement of a spouse or child lying nearby, etc.

Somnologists believe that 70% of such movements have a bad effect on the quality of sleep, or rather, on its ability to move into a deep phase. And this just does not allow a person to fully sleep. Often we are forced to change our position by a hard surface, and a full stomach, and poor health, which means that when going to rest, we need to create the most comfortable conditions for ourselves.

About prophetic dreams

Somnologists, studying dreams, also understood the so-called "prophetic dreams" and came to the conclusion that in fact there is nothing mystical in them. Trying to solve them, you should not fantasize what happens to the soul during sleep. It's not she wandering in higher worlds, no, - just in the phase of slow sleep, it picks up signals coming from internal organs, and conveys them in the form of vivid images. A person sees colored dreams, and can interpret them based on simple analogies.

For example, if you dream of rotten vegetables or raw meat (in a word, inedible foods), it means that there are problems with digestive system. And the fact that a person is suffocating or drowning, as a rule, indicates a violation of work respiratory organs. A burning fire can be dreamed of with angina pectoris, since one of the symptoms of this pathology is just a burning sensation in the chest.

But flights in a dream - clear sign growth in children and positive development in adults.

The value of sleep is difficult to overestimate.

Everything that happens in the body during sleep haunts researchers. This much-needed and irreplaceable state of a person is studied by physicians, psychiatrists and even esotericists.

There are many myths and sensations around this topic, but you should not get too carried away with them, because sleep is, first of all, an opportunity to restore vitality and maintain health. Therefore, take care of your sleep and treat the described physiological process with respect!