Facts About Sleeping!

A person feels sleepy when his mind & body are completely tired due to some sort of exertion. It alarms your mind about the rest required for you to get charged up. A minimum six hour sleep is required for a person to recharge or feel refreshed. Sleeping is a state of quiet & inactive restfulness. It is a natural state of bodily rest that is observed in every living being. Sleep cycle consist of a brain activities, consciousness and bodily movements. Sleep difficulties are associated with various psychiatric disorders like depression, hypertension, alcoholism and bipolar disorders. Not getting enough rest & sleep will ultimately lead to sleep debts.

Bodily movements that occur during sleeping can be also be the result of dreaming. Dreaming can be referred as the perception of sensory images & sounds during sleep. Dreaming mostly occurs during the REM phase of sleep.

Sleep is characterized in REM (rapid eye movement) & three stages of non-REM sleep. Every type is distinctly associated with physiological, neurological & psychological features. Non-REM sleep is diminishes brain activity & decreases body movement by providing less responsiveness to external stimuli. Non-REM sleep is a deep sleep early or in the night. This type of sleep provides complete rest to mind & body. Whereas, The REM sleep refers to increased brain activities & suppressed responsiveness to external stimuli. This type of sleep inhibits active body movements. During the stage of REM sleep the brain activity is resembled to that of an aware state, only the body is resting. This type of sleep is of restorative nature.

During a non-REM sleep there is a passive inhibition of movements. It unlike REM sleep, there is no or very little eye movement during this stage. Non-REM sleep is associated with disfacilitation which is related to decreased brain activity. Other type is associated with REM atony, it is a complex response to brain cells incorporated with chemical & electrical connections. It suppressed various motor movements by allowing heartbeat, breathing, sexual arousal & eye movement. During the REM stage, partial visual areas are highly active which gives rise to confused state of dreams.

Our brain need to be regularly rebooted to maintain the optimum function & processing capacity. Some people tend to make movements while sleeping, like moving arms, hands or legs in a particular action. This is because of dreaming which is the result of higher level of disfacilitation that encourages response to dreaming. To normal the functions of brain & central nervous systems, proportional sleep and restorative REM is very essential. REM without atony will result in tossing and tumbling nights. No proper disfacilitation of Non-REM sleep will result in to fatigue, irritability and various other behavioral changes that are associated with improper night rests. While sleeping, movements stops, which enables our central nervous system (CNS) to function safely.

To get proper sleep following sleep hygienic principles is of utmost importance. If pain, illness, stress or drugs are the culprit proper medications & other essentials should be practiced to get undisturbed & quiet sleep. Age factor also plays a major role as far as sleeping is concerned. Older people are more likely to get awoken by minor disturbances in the environment. In order to compensate with the sleep loss, they may require daytime naps.

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