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While We Sleep, Our Mind Goes on an Amazing Journey
REM
Rapid Eye Movement or REM follows after the four stages of NREM (non-REM) sleep and occupies about one-fifth of total rest time in adults.
During REM, all vivid dreaming takes place. Our internal temperature is at its lowest. Our heart rate increases and our breathing is irregular. Generally, our muscles are immobilized, and we are incapable of physical response, except for our eyes and ears. However, our brain is fully active.
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Key Ideas
Dreams as therapists
Your dreams may be ways of confronting emotional dramas...
Fight-or-flight training
One of the areas of the brain that’s most active during dreaming is the amygdala - the part of the brain associated with the survival instinct and the fight-or-flight response.
One theory suggests dreams may be the brain’s way of getting you ready to deal with a threat. Fortunately, the brainstem sends out nerve signals during REM sleep that relax your muscles. That way you don’t try to run or punch in your sleep.
Dreams as your muse
One theory for why we dream is that it helps facilitate our creative tendencies.
Without the logic filter, you might normally use in your waking life that can restrict your creative flow, your thoughts and ideas have no restrictions when you’re sleeping.
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Key Ideas
Slow-wave sleep (deep sleep) – SWS
About 80% of our sleeping is of the SWS variety, identified by slow brain waves, relaxed muscles and deep breathing.
Deep sleep is important for the consolidation of memories. New experience...
Rapid eye movement (dreaming) - REM
Dreaming accounts for 20% of our sleeping time.
The length of dreams can vary from a few seconds to almost an hour. During REM sleep, the brain is highly active. The muscles are paralyzed, and the heart rate increases. Breathing can become erratic.
Sleep quantity
Although eight hours is the common mention, optimum sleep can vary from person to person and from age to age.
One review that worked through 320 research articles concluded 7 - 9 hours of sleep are enough for adults. According to experts, too little or too much sleep can both have a negative impact on your health.
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Defining Sleepwalking
Sleepwalking is known as somnambulism. It's classified as an abnormal behavior during sleep that's disruptive.
The handbook for mental health professionals, th...
When Sleepwalking Happens
During the first third of sleep, your body is in non-REM - your deepest stage of sleep. Your brain quiets down and you aren't dreaming. Your body is active, and you tend to toss and turn.
People usually sleepwalk during the first third of their sleep pattern. Sleepwalking episodes can last from a few seconds to half an hour. Sleepwalkers can perform many activities, from walking around to driving a car or playing an instrument.
Why People Sleepwalk
People used to think that sleepwalkers acted out their dreams. However, sleepwalking occurs during the deepest stages of sleep when you are not dreaming.
- Mental health professionals state that sleepwalking is an arousal disorder, meaning that something triggers the brain, so the person is in a transition state between sleeping and waking.
- Most sleepwalkers are children. It could be because their brains outpace others in development or that a child's brain is too immature to understand waking and sleeping cycles.
- Children tend to sleepwalk more when they are overly tired or stressed. The same factors affect adult sleepwalkers, as well as medicines, alcohol, and fever illnesses.
- Sleepwalking has been linked to seizures, REM sleep disorders, and brain disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.