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How does your brain wake up from sleep?
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How Scientists Study Brain Activity
- Scientists study activity in the brain with a tool called electroencephalography ( EEG), that measures electrical signals coming from neurons.
- The brain is not turned off while you sleep - there is a lot of activity going on, even if you’re not aware of it. You cycle through four different sleep stages, and each shows up as a different pattern on the EEG.
- Each sleep stage is also associated with different patterns of chemicals in your brain (neurochemicals - the way brain cells use to communicate with each other).
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How Our Brains Wake Us Up
- One of the systems in the brain that wakes us up is the reticular activating system (RAS) - a part of your brain located just above your spinal column that acts like a gatekeeper or filter for your brain, making sure it doesn’t have to deal with more information than it can handle.
- The RAS can sense important information and create neurochemicals that wake up other parts of the brain. It also keeps you awake throughout the day.
- Once the RAS switch turns on, it can take some time for your whole brain and body to wake up. This is because it takes a few minutes to clear all the “sleepy” neurochemicals from your brain, which is why you may feel groggy when an alarm clock wakes you up.
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Why We Feel More Groggy On Some Days
When your brain is asleep, it shifts between deep and light stages. If your alarm clock goes off during a deeper stage of sleep, it takes longer for all the parts of your brain to wake up.
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How much sleep is enough
Sleep needs vary from person to person. Age, genetics, lifestyle, and environment all play a role.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults need 7-9 hours of sleep a night...
Take a vacation from your alarm clock
To really find out what your individual sleep needs are, do the following experiment for at least two weeks:
- Pick the same bedtime every night.
- Turn off your alarm.
- Record the time you wake up.
You may sleep longer during the first few days, but over the course of a few weeks, a pattern will emerge of how much sleep your body needs each night.
Ask yourself: 'Am I seepy?'
If you often feel tired, your body is telling you that it's not getting enough sleep.
If you're getting eight hours of sleep a night but still feel tired, you may be suffering from a sleep disorder or interrupted sleep.
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Our sleep-wake pattern
Our molecular clock inside our cells aims to keep us in sync with the sun.
When we disregard this circadian rhythm, we are at a greater risk for illnesses such as diabetes, heart...
The lifestyle imbalance
Thomas Edison said that sleep is "a bad habit." Like Edison, we seem to think of sleep as an adversary and try to fight it at every turn. The average American sleeps less than the recommended seven hours per night, mostly due to electric lights, television, computers, and smartphones.
However, we are ignoring the intricate journey we're designed to take when we sleep.
Stage One Sleep
When we fall asleep, the nearly 86 billion neurons in our brain starts to fire evenly and rhythmically. Our sensory receptors become muffled at the same time.
The first stage of shallow sleep lasts for about 5 minutes.
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The Elixir of Life
Insomniacs must know that sleep is natural, and normal, with each of us having the ...
Tips for Sleeping
- Get up at the same time every morning.
- Write affirmations to tell yourself that your body knows how to sleep.
- Don't involve your over-thinking mind too much.
- Use your bed is for sleep and sex only.
- Don't lie awake for more than 20 minutes on the bed, and if you can't sleep, get up and try to do some calming activity like folding laundry.
The Enemy of Sleep
Our body will take care of itself if left on its own. It is our mind which is the culprit, running like a motor, inducing low-grade anxiety inside us.
Sleep is not something you have to do, but something which happens naturally to you. If an insomniac forgets that he is an insomniac, he will have a good night's sleep.