Does our body sleep during sleep. Sleep positions change due to illness, which sleep position is correct What happens during non-REM sleep
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At night, I want to sleep peacefully and restore strength. Nevertheless, it is difficult to find a person who has never encountered strange and unpleasant sensations accompanying bedtime.
website decided to talk about sleep disorders and other similar things that remain mysterious to science to this day.
sleep paralysis
How does it feel: A person wakes up at night and cannot move. This is mixed with frightening hallucinations and the feeling that there is an outsider in the room. In ancient times, the state was associated with the machinations of evil spirits.
Why does it occur: Normally, when we fall asleep, we are paralyzed so that we do not perform actions in a dream. With sleep paralysis, our muscles “turn off” when the brain is still or no longer sleeping.
Approximately 7% of the population has experienced sleep paralysis at least once (fact). They say it happens more often when sleeping on your back.
Hypnagogic hallucinations
How does it feel: When a person is on the thin line between sleep and wakefulness, he, being conscious, sees uncontrollable images before his eyes. Often these are scary faces and fantastic creatures.
Why does it occur: This is one of the few types of hallucinations that visit mentally healthy people. Usually children encounter them (fact), and this may be the reason that they do not want to go to bed. Often such hallucinations occur due to stress and simply in people with a good imagination. May appear if you go to bed drunk.
Sleep conversations
How does it feel: Usually the person who suffers from somniloquia (talking in his sleep) is unaware of it. This state is absolutely not dangerous in psychological terms. Unless a person with such a problem is worried that he has blurted out something superfluous.
What comes from: More often somniloquia occurs in men and children (fact). The reason is the notorious stress. The human psyche is trying to resist what he does not agree with in reality.
A dream within a dream
How does it feel: A person has a dream, then wakes up, but strange things continue to happen to him. It turns out that he just dreamed that he woke up. The theme of such dreams was raised in the movie Inception. After that, it turned out that many people experienced this.
What comes from: Esotericists believe that if you saw such a dream, this indicates your predisposition to spiritual practices. But official science cannot explain why this happens.
Somnambulism
How does it feel: This state is back sleep paralysis- Consciousness sleeps, but muscle paralysis does not occur. In a dream, people can walk, clean or even leave the house, and this is often very dangerous. In the morning, people don't remember anything.
What comes from: Somnambulism occurs in approximately 4.6–10.3% of the population, with children suffering more often (fact). The cause of sleepwalking is still unknown, as are the methods of treatment.
exploding head syndrome
How does it feel: A person wakes up from the sensation of a loud explosion or pop. Sometimes it seems that the sound was so loud that you can go deaf. It may be accompanied by a rising hum or flash. The phenomenon is not dangerous, but it causes fear in people, some think that they have had a stroke.
What comes from: For some reason, there is a burst of neural activity in the areas of the brain responsible for sound processing (fact). Sometimes the syndrome manifests itself against the background of insomnia or a change in time zone during long-haul flights.
sleep apnea
How does it feel: Sleep apnea is a sudden stoppage of breathing during sleep. The person wakes up. The quality of sleep decreases, the brain experiences oxygen starvation it becomes difficult to sleep. During an attack, pressure jumps, which can cause heart problems.
What comes from: During sleep, the muscles of the pharynx relax, in some people this leads to the blockage of the airways. At risk are people with obesity, smokers, the elderly. By the way, playing the Australian didgeridoo pipe helps with sleep apnea (fact).
recurring dreams
How does it feel: Strange dreams, which constantly reproduce the same plot, were probably dreamed by everyone.
What comes from: Psychologists believe that with the help of such dreams, the brain tries to draw our attention to events that we are not aware of. These plots will return until the situation is resolved (fact).
Fall into bed
The science
We spend nearly one third of our lives sleeping. But sleep is not a waste of time, because the moment we plunge into our unconscious, many functions are activated that provide us with an optimal night's rest.
In sleep, our body is restored and cleansed. bad dream is associated with poor health, and those who sleep less than six hours a night have a shorter life expectancy than those who sleep longer. Thus, sleep has a profound effect on our mental, emotional and physical well-being.
Brain
Sleep seems to be a rather passive state, and despite the fact that activity in the cerebral cortex drops by almost 40 percent when we are in the first phase of sleep, the brain remains very active in the last stages of sleep.
Typical night sleep consists of five different cycles sleep, each of which lasts about 90 minutes. The first four stages of each cycle are considered restful sleep or a sleep phase with non-rapid eye movement. Last stage sleep with rapid eye movement.
During the first stage of sleep, brain waves are small undulating movements. During the second stage, they are interspersed with electrical signals called "spindles" - small bursts of activity that last a few seconds and keep us in a state of quiet alertness.
As the second stage flows into the third, the brain waves continue to deepen into large slow waves. The larger and slower the brain wave, the deeper the sleep. The fourth stage occurs when 50 percent of the waves become slow.
During this time, 40 percent of normal blood flow to the brain is directed to the muscles in order to restore energy. However, during the REM phase that follows this stage, there is high level brain activity. This stage is associated with dreams and is caused by the pons, the part of the brain stem that transmits impulses from the spinal cord to the brain and nearby structures.
The pons sends signals to the thalamus and the cerebral cortex, which are responsible for the thought process. It also sends signals to turn off motor neurons in spinal cord, causing temporary paralysis and preventing movement during sleep.
REM sleep helps to integrate memory and emotion, and at this point, blood flow increases dramatically in several areas of the brain associated with memory and emotional experience, while in areas of the brain such as reasoning and language, blood flow is reduced.
Eyes
Despite the fact that the eyes are covered with eyelids, their movements mean different stages sleep. When we first enter a semi-conscious state, the eyes make circular motions. But when we find ourselves in deeper sleep, rapid eye movements begin, with the eyes twitching and darting.
REM sleep occurs about 1.5 hours after falling asleep and reappears every 90 minutes during the night. It means the time when we dream.
Despite the fact that the activity of the brain at this stage is high, the muscles of the body are relaxed almost to the point of paralysis.
Hormones
During wakefulness, the body burns oxygen and food in order to provide itself with energy. This state is called catabolic, during which more energy is consumed than is stored using the resources of the body. During this stage, the work of stimulating hormones such as adrenaline and natural corticosteroids dominates.
However, when we sleep, we find ourselves in an anabolic state where maintenance, repair, and growth predominate. Adrenaline and corticosteroid levels drop and the body begins produce human growth hormone.
Protein Human Growth Hormone promotes the growth, maintenance, and repair of muscles and bones by promoting the utilization of amino acids, important building blocks of proteins. Every tissue in our body is renewed much faster during sleep. than at any other waking time.
Melatonin, another hormone produced to help us fall asleep, is secreted by the pineal gland deep in the brain and helps control body rhythms and sleep-wake cycles.
Melatonin levels rise as body temperature drops to induce a state of drowsiness. The exact opposite process occurs when we wake up.
Sex hormones testosterone and fertility hormones, follicle-stimulating and luteinizing hormones are secreted mostly during sleep.
The immune system
Research shows that when infectious diseases Sleep helps you recover faster. This may be due to the increased secretion of certain proteins immune system during sleep, as the levels of certain disease-fighting substances rise during sleep and fall when we are awake.
deep sleep also helps resist infections, and some studies have shown that moderate sleep loss reduces white blood cell levels, which are part of the body's defense system.
Tumor necrosis factor - cancer killer, which flows in our veins, is also activated during sleep. The study found that people who stayed up until 3 a.m. had one-third fewer tumor necrosis factor-containing cells the next day, and the effectiveness of the remaining cells was significantly reduced.
Just as the world is ruled by light and darkness, people have an internal clock called circadian rhythms. Located in the hypothalamus, they cause 24-hour fluctuations in many body functions. They control the change of sleep and wakefulness and suggest when it is time for us to sleep.
Circadian rhythms regulate the processes in the body from digestion to cell repair. All of these rhythms are driven by the action of chemical messengers and nerves that are controlled by the circadian clock.
Providing regular periods of sleep at night allows our internal clock to regulate hormone production so that we feel alert during the day and enjoy restorative sleep at night.
Body temperature
In the evening, body temperature, along with wakefulness hormones such as adrenaline, begin to drop. Some sweating may occur as the body is immobilized and tries to fight off heat loss.
Body temperature continues to drop during the night. By about 5 o'clock it falls one degree Celsius below the temperature it was in the evening.
At the same time, the metabolic rate also drops. At this time, we feel most tired, because low temperature coincides with low level adrenaline.
Low body temperature increases the likelihood sound sleep and allows the body to rest and recover. When body temperature starts to rise, it is more difficult for a person to stay in a deep sleep state.
Leather
The top layer of the skin is made up of densely packed dead cells that we constantly shed throughout the day. During deep sleep, the metabolic rate in the skin increases and the production of many body cells begins to increase, while at the same time, the breakdown of proteins decreases.
Since proteins are the building blocks needed for cell growth and repairing damage from factors such as ultraviolet rays, deep sleep can actually become a dream of beauty.
Daytime sleep cannot compensate for the loss of the nightly “beauty sleep”, since during the day there is no energy required for tissue repair, because it is used for other purposes.
Breath
When we fall asleep, the throat muscles relax and it becomes narrower every time we inhale. Snoring occurs when the throat narrows to a slit and respiratory tract begin to vibrate due to resistance to breathing.
Those who snore most often have reduced muscle tone in the tongue and throat, which allows the tongue to fold back toward the airways. Obesity, enlarged tonsils and adenoids also contribute to snoring.
However, disturbed breathing during sleep can cause a condition known as sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can lead to compression of the trachea when the muscles relax during sleep. This blocks the flow of air for a period of a few seconds to a minute, while the sleeper becomes hard to breathe.
When blood oxygen levels drop, the brain responds by constricting the upper airways and opening the trachea. This results in snorting or sighing before the snoring recovers.
Saliva is required for moistening the mouth and for eating, but during sleep, the flow of saliva is reduced, which causes dry mouth when we wake up.
However, the mouth remains quite active during sleep, and many people unconsciously start grinding their teeth in their sleep. This condition is called bruxism and is most common during the first and second stages of sleep. It is caused by misaligned teeth in the jaw, but is also thought to be a way to alleviate stress that has built up throughout the day.
muscles
Although a person can change positions during sleep about 35 times a night, the muscles of the body remain relaxed. This allows tissue to be restored.
However, some studies claim that muscles can also recover during normal rest, and this does not require an unconscious state.
Blood
When we sleep, our heart rate drops between 10 and 30 beats per minute. This causes a drop in blood pressure that occurs during restful sleep.
During rest, blood flows from the brain, swells the arteries and makes the limbs bigger. Some scientists believe that sleep when tired is mild form blood detoxification. This is because, during the day, debris from destroyed tissues enters the bloodstream. In the waking state, most of the waste will be removed through the lungs, kidneys, intestines and skin. But there may be a limit to saturation. In this way, nature tries to reduce waste products in order to replenish the lost energy, which causes fatigue and sleep.
During sleep, cells and tissues that break down produce waste products and become less active. This allows the decayed tissues to recover.
Digestive system
The body requires a constant supply of energy, and glucose is a key source of energy. It is constantly burned to release energy for muscle contraction, nerve impulses and regulation of body temperature.
When we sleep, the need for energy is minimal., because digestive system works in slow motion, and the immobility of the body contributes to this.
RECOVERY SLEEP SYSTEM. Very important!
What happens inside our body at night:
A third of a person's life should be spent sleeping. Those who do not comply with this requirement, life eventually punishes with a whole bunch of diseases: from endocrine, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal to mental and oncological. Why? The answer is simple: the body periodically needs daily rest and “repair and preventive” work. And they, so programmed by nature, are mostly carried out in our body at night. Therefore, daytime rest can never fully replace night sleep.
See what happens inside our body at night:
22 hours. The number of leukocytes in the blood doubles - this is the immune system checking the territory entrusted to it. Body temperature drops. The biological clock is beeping: it's time for bed.
23 hours. The body relaxes more and more, but recovery processes are in full swing in every cell.
24 hours. Dreams take over consciousness more and more, and the brain continues to work, sorting out the information received during the day.
1 hour. The dream is very sensitive. A tooth not healed in time or a knee injured a long time ago can be different and will not let you fall asleep until the morning.
2 hours. All organs are resting, only the liver is working with might and main, cleaning the sleeping body from accumulated toxins.
3 hours. Complete physiological decline: blood pressure at the lower limit, the pulse and breathing are rare.
4 hours. The brain is supplied with a minimal amount of blood and is not ready to wake up, but hearing becomes extremely acute - you can wake up from the slightest noise.
5 o'clock. The kidneys are resting, the muscles are dozing, the metabolism is slowed down, but in principle the body is already ready to wake up.
6 hours. The adrenal glands begin to release the hormones adrenaline and norepinephrine into the bloodstream, which increase blood pressure and make the heart beat faster. The body is already preparing for awakening, although consciousness is still dormant.
7 o'clock - finest hour of the immune system. It's time to warm up and get under cold and hot shower. By the way, drugs at this hour are absorbed much better than at other times of the day.
See what important recovery processes take place in the body when we sleep peacefully! And in order for all of them to pass without a hitch, sleep should not only be long enough, but also of high quality: calm, deep, without causeless awakenings and snoring.
Science has several dozen different sleep disorders that affect 20% of the population. First of all, this is insomnia - insomnia, as doctors say. It is most often based on stress, neurosis, mental strain, shift work, air travel from one time zone to another.
The situation is exacerbated by the so-called "Edison effect" - the abundance of electric lighting in our homes. The fact is that the sleep hormone - melatonin, which regulates the cycles of sleep and wakefulness, our pineal gland (pineal gland) produces only in the dark. Moreover, constantly and in a certain rhythm, which provides such a hypnotic effect, which no pharmaceutical preparations you won't get it. Therefore, for those who want to be healthy, doctors advise not to sleep in the light, protect the pineal gland and increase the content of melatonin. naturally. What is needed for this?
Avoid stress and don't overwork.
Do not break the daily cycles. You need to go to bed at sunset - at about 22:00 and get up at dawn every day, including weekends.
For dinner, it is better to eat foods rich in serotonin: tomatoes, celery, bananas, corn cobs, oatmeal or rice porridge, sea fish. Serotonin - one of the so-called "happiness hormones" - is the raw material for the production of melatonin.
You can indulge in carbohydrates. They also increase melatonin levels. Just eat them on an empty stomach and do not mix with fats and proteins. Eliminate alcohol, nicotine and caffeine.
Make sure your food has enough B vitamins: B3, B6 and B12, as well as calcium and magnesium.
Avoid excessive electromagnetic radiation - it is bad for the pineal gland. Try to sit less in front of the TV or computer, turn off all electrical appliances in the bedroom before going to bed.
Adviсe
For the prevention of sleep disorders 30 minutes before going to bed, it is useful to drink a glass of soothing herbal tea. His recipe: mix equal parts chamomile flowers, fennel seeds, peppermint herb and valerian root. 1-2 tbsp. l. collection pour a glass of boiling water and hold for half an hour in a water bath. Then cool, strain through several layers of gauze and squeeze.
The well-known neurologist Konstantin Umansky advises making a special therapeutic pillow for sleep disorders: pour hop flowers into a canvas bag and hem it to a regular pillow for several months. Volatile substances of hops have a calming effect on the nervous system. The bag can be filled with other herbs. When the aroma of mint, chamomile, sweet clover and other plants is in the air, you sleep much better.
You can also drink the air of the bedroom with healing aromas with the help of an aroma lamp. The smell of roses and lavender will calm the nervous system, pine needles will relieve fatigue, laurel will prevent spasms, rosemary will alleviate the condition of chronic diseases of the upper respiratory tract.
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We go to bed late - dig our own grave!
I am writing this article after a sleepless night. How often do we, wonderful wives, mothers and just women, go to bed late! I think that more than once, having finally put the children to bed, they sit up at the computer or in front of the TV until one or even later. Someone is doing household chores or doing a part-time job, and it's already after midnight. At the same time, it's no secret to anyone that you need to go to bed early. But why? It's time to figure it out and find out what is dangerous, especially for a woman, going to bed late.
1) Mental exhaustion
Your brain actively rests from 21:00 to 23:00. If you go to bed after 23:00, then gradually over time mental exhaustion will come to you.
If you do not sleep from 23:00 to 1 am, then your life force will suffer.
You are in violation nervous system. Symptoms: weakness, lethargy, heaviness and weakness.
If you do not sleep from 1 to 3 at night, then you may develop excessive aggressiveness and irritability.
Your beautiful brain needs rest to function better. The better you sleep, the better your day's work will be. Sleep is not a time "crossed out" from active life, but a process during which your body gains strength, preparing you for next day. Good dream gives you strength, you feel in shape, think clearly. It allows you to concentrate on work throughout the day. The best way to do everything you have planned is to give your body time to rest in sleep.
Scientists argue that lack of sleep, which has become chronic, reduces the ability to analyze information, adversely affects the processes of memorization, significantly reduces the speed of a person's reaction to external stimuli. It is these reasons that prevent a sleepy driver from driving a car, because lack of sleep leads to inhibited actions, not much different from the effect on the brain of alcoholic beverages. So rash is your insurance against accidents while driving.
2) Fading beauty
Sleep is not only vital, it is also the most effective and completely free way to maintain beauty. It is during sleep that active cell renewal and tissue repair take place.
I even read about a special technique of rejuvenation in a dream. To do this, before going to bed, mentally imagine yourself 15-20 years younger. You can look at your photograph of those years, and keep your image in your mind until you fall asleep, and do this every day. The authors of the method claim that positive results will be noticeable in a week! And after two months of daily classes, you will look younger years on 10.
3)
Over time, internal tension builds up in the body, from which the body normal conditions released during sleep. As a result, there comes chronic fatigue and inability to self-heal.
4) Extra pounds
American scientists have proven that women who regularly lack sleep get better faster. Sleep deprivation worsens metabolic processes in the body, so if late bedtime is your way of life, then you risk gaining weight 2 times faster, even if otherwise the behavior is exactly the same.
According to studies, people who sleep poorly consume about 15% more food than those who sleep properly.
The body begins to accumulate fat, perceiving fatigue as a sign of an approaching crisis.
Other studies show that a lack of sleep in the body can upset the balance of hormones responsible for the process of burning calories. Experts are unanimous in their opinion that with the help of a diet or exercise without proper sleep, magical results cannot be achieved. So get enough sleep, get better and look younger!
5) Weakened immunity
Everything is obvious and simple: at night the body is restored, updated, neutralizes the negative effects of wakefulness, which helps to strengthen the immune system. During the night, cells of the immune system are activated, destroying all pathogenic microorganisms that enter the body during the day. With constant lack of sleep, the risk of getting a cold, flu or SARS increases three times.
Clinic expert Mayo, Doctor of Medical Sciences Timothy Morgenthaler explained why sleep is so important in the fight against disease. This is because during sleep, proteins (known as cytokines) are produced that fight infection.
However, too much sleep causes various health problems, including obesity, heart disease, and depression. Adults need 7-8 hours of sleep to be healthy.
Sleep is also a preventive measure. serious illnesses. To date, lack of sleep is not a risk factor that provokes pathology. of cardio-vascular system and diabetes, as well as other chronic diseases although it has reason to be there. If a person sleeps less than eight hours a day, then the risk of these diseases increases by 20%, less than 5 hours - by 50%.
Sleep also affects hair health. Lack of sleep activates the production of cortisol, which is a stress hormone. It is capable of causing depression, and also negatively affects many processes, leading to chaos in the body, one of the consequences of which is a violation of hair growth.
6) Aging
During a night's sleep, skin cells are restored, blood flow improves, due to which the cells are saturated with oxygen and amino acids. Natural smoothing occurs mimic wrinkles improves skin tone and smoothness. However, these beneficial processes are possible only with a sleep duration of at least 8 hours a day.
Lack of sleep reduces overall protective functions organism, leading to premature aging. At the same time, life expectancy is reduced by 12-20%. According to statistics, in the 60s of the last century, a person took 8 hours to sleep, now it is about 6.5.
See what happens inside our body at night:
22 hours. In the blood, the number of leukocytes doubles - this is the immune system checking the territory entrusted to it. Body temperature drops. The biological clock is beeping: it's time for bed.
23 hours. The body relaxes more and more, but recovery processes are in full swing in every cell.
24 hours. Dreams take over consciousness more and more, and the brain continues to work, sorting out the information received during the day.
1 hour. The dream is very sensitive. A tooth not healed in time or a knee injured a long time ago can be different and will not let you fall asleep until the morning.
2 hours. All organs are resting, only the liver is working with might and main, cleaning the sleeping body from accumulated toxins.
3 hours. Complete physiological decline: blood pressure at the lower limit, pulse and breathing are rare.
4 hours. The brain is supplied with a minimal amount of blood and is not ready to wake up, but hearing becomes extremely acute - you can wake up from the slightest noise.
5 o'clock. The kidneys are resting, the muscles are dozing, the metabolism is slowed down, but in principle the body is already ready to wake up.
6 hours. The adrenal glands begin to release the hormones adrenaline and norepinephrine into the bloodstream, which increase blood pressure and make the heart beat faster. The body is already preparing for awakening, although consciousness is still dormant.
7 o'clock- high point of the immune system. It's time to warm up and get under a contrast shower. By the way, drugs at this hour are absorbed much better than at other times of the day.
"Owls" and "Larks"
Many of you may be thinking, “But I— "owl" and getting up early is “not given to me”, which means that I won’t develop this habit in myself in vain.” Especially for you, scientists have proved that the body of each person obeys a kind of biological rhythms that “tell” him at what time it is better to go to bed and when to get up.
In accordance with these biorhythms during the day human body undergoes several physiological ups and downs. The most favorable time to go to bed is between 21:00 and 22:00, since one of the physiological declines occurs from 22:00 to 23:00, it is at this time that you can easily fall asleep. But at midnight you will no longer want to sleep, because at this time the body is awake and a physiological rise occurs.
The same thing happens in the morning. It is easier to get up at 5-6 in the morning (physiological rise) than at 7-8 o'clock, when the decline in activity begins again.
Biological rhythms work the same for everyone, which means that all people should be "larks". If you go to bed on time, then waking up early will not be difficult. All this is a matter of habit.
And now advice for those who want to be healthy, young, beautiful and go to bed on time.
Let's start with the fact that our sleep has phases that are divided into an hour and a half, that is, at the end of every 90 minutes of our sleep, we wake up a little, but we naturally do not notice this. And it is recommended to get up at the end of the sleep phase in order to feel alert and well-rested. But this does not mean that you can sleep for an hour and a half and wake up refreshed, at least you need to sleep two phases, that is, three hours.
For example: you go to bed, look at the clock, and it's 22:00, take 7 minutes to fall asleep (this is the average time for a person to fall asleep), it turns out that you need to start the alarm clock at 4:07, or at 5:37 and so on.
Of course, you can take it all lightly and say, “I go to bed at midnight and nothing happens to me.” But not all at once, after a couple of years, or maybe more, you can feel how your strength and beauty begin to fade due to accumulated fatigue over many years.
For those who are still thinking, I want to remind: "Those who want, look for opportunities, those who do not want, look for excuses". This is your life, your beauty and your choice!
Natalia Gray
Is a sleeping person different from a waking person? Of course, even a child will answer. If a person is awake, he can think, hear, see, perceive and analyze information, feel tastes and smells, show a certain reaction to stimuli. If a person is asleep, he is practically immobile. And it seems that all organs and systems cease their activity, and rest as long as a person is in a dream. Is it really? What happens while we sleep with the body, organs and body systems?
body during sleep
It is unlikely that anyone will be news that the most common body position during sleep is the prone position. Why not sitting, standing, or kneeling? The fact is that for complete relaxation, the body needs the same position as standing, but with the condition that the muscles remain in a relaxed state. It is impossible to stand in a relaxed state, because without support for the neck and lower back, a person simply falls. The lying position meets all the necessary requirements as much as possible.
It is clear and obvious that people can sleep in other positions. But is it a full sleep? A person who falls asleep while sitting, for example, in public transport, cannot provide the muscles of the neck and back with the support that would allow them to achieve the most relaxed state. A person is sleeping, the neck and back are trying to get rid of tension, but this is actively prevented by the lack of support. As a result, the tissues that bind the vertebrae are stretched, and the joints that provide mobility to the spine are compressed. Not surprisingly, after such a dream, people will experience difficulty with movements and pain in the lower back and neck-collar zone.
It is noteworthy that people who sleep sitting and even standing, as the sleep deepens, begin to “drop” their heads. Muscles gravitate toward complete relaxation, and the body subconsciously seeks to take the position necessary for proper rest. Evidence that the muscles during sleep are in a state of complete relaxation is an experiment that anyone can do: raise the sleeping person's hand, and then release. Your hand will fall!
However, the opinion that absolutely all the muscles of the body rest during sleep is erroneous. The muscles of the eyelids and around the eyes are forced to remain tense, because during the hours when the whole body is relaxed, they have to be responsible for keeping the eyes closed.
And how different is the activity of the internal organs and systems of the sleeping person?
body during sleep
The blood driven by the heart continues to circulate, but the circulation rate and heart rate of a sleeping person are lowered. Slows down and becomes less deep breathing. In slow mode, the kidneys and liver function, the body temperature drops by one degree. But the stomach continues to work as usual.
Interesting discoveries were made by scientists who studied the sense organs of sleeping people. Sharp sounds, regardless of the nature of their occurrence, bring a person out of a state of sleep. Apparently, it was the ability to wake up from the sound that was taken into account when developing alarm clocks! Otherwise, the reaction of the sleeper to smells looks different. Neither the sharp smell of pyridine, nor the pleasant smell of mint, which were used by scientists at Brown University (USA), could awaken the people who took part in the experiment. The Americans noticed that a person reacts to smells only in the phase of REM sleep, and as sleep moves into the phase of slow sleep, sensitivity to smells, even the sharpest ones, weakens and completely disappears. Considering that REM sleep accounts for only 25% of the structure of sleep, it becomes less surprising that many people die in their sleep from suffocation by combustion products.
During sleep, a person's sensitivity to changes in temperature does not weaken. If a person has opened up outside, when the temperature drops to 26 degrees and below, he will wake up. The same happens at temperatures above 37 degrees!
Sleep movements
I wonder why, having taken, it would seem, the most comfortable position, getting into bed, we turn over several times a night from side to side, then from stomach to back, then squeezing, then stretching our legs!? Scientists have determined that movements in sleep can occur as a response to stimuli, or be a consequence of the functioning of the body. So, for example, a person begins to toss and turn in his sleep, if there are some deviations from the optimal sleep conditions for the individual. Noise, sudden flashes of light, changes in the air temperature in the room, the movements of a spouse or child sleeping next to us - all this makes us move. It has been proven that 70% of all movements performed by a person in a dream adversely affect the intensity of sleep. They prevent the body from going into deep sleep. In other words, the more movements a person makes in a dream, the less likely it is to get enough sleep.
Is it even possible to sleep motionless if movements have such a negative impact on the quality of our sleep? Paradoxically, not changing the position of the body during sleep will also fail. Due to gravity, the areas of our body that come into contact with the surface on which we sleep experience pressure. Prolonged pressure on the skin disrupts the normal blood supply to certain parts of the body and causes damage to them. To unload areas from pressure, we periodically turn over in a dream, doing this on a subconscious level! It has been observed that a person sleeping on a hard surface makes 46% more such movements than one sleeping on a spring-loaded bed or sofa. So, it is fair to conclude that the comfort of the surface has a direct impact on the quality of sleep.
brain during sleep
Scientists have conducted numerous experiments to unravel what the brain does during sleep. Most of the results obtained as a result of observations indicate that the brain continues to function, but the nature of its activity changes. During sleep, brain cells are disconnected from peripheral stimuli and begin to classify and organize information received during wakefulness. New information processed, sorted, compared with the one formed by the experience of the past, and sent to the desired cell on long-term storage. The regular absence of a full-fledged night's rest does not allow the brain to release resources in a timely manner for processing and "orderly recording" of the received data, which negatively affects the state of a person's memory.
“Morning is wiser than evening,” says folk wisdom. And scientific experiments do not seek to challenge it. In 2004, scientists from the University of Lübeck (Germany) recruited a group of volunteers and taught them how to solve certain type mathematical problems. Participants in the experiment were asked to solve 100 similar problems. At the same time, the existence of a more rational way of solving it was not announced. After the first session, one half of the group was given 12 hours of sleep, the rest of the subjects were awake. During the second session, 59% of the first group demonstrated a simple method for solving the problem, the number of people who found an easy algorithm in the awake group was significantly less (23%). The experience led to the conclusion that during sleep the brain is able to find such a solution to the problem, the existence of which a waking person often does not even suspect.
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 from 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 proper 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 also features slow eye movements, but it also reduces heartbeat and general 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- the mode of wakefulness, when a person actively thinks, thinks logically and makes decisions, as well as the 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 intervertebral discs, 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 - 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.