What happens in the body during sleep?

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It's no secret that sleep - a vital biological needs of the organism.It helps to restore the immunity of the person, to order obtained during wakefulness information and support many more processes that up to the end, by the way, have not studied.Learn more about what happens to a person during sleep, we'll talk further.

sleep stages

Our soul and body need rest, and the most indispensable in this regard is a dream.Miss it for any reason, we will feel that we can not move normally because the disrupted coordination and memory and ability to focus significantly weakened.If lack of sleep becomes long, all these symptoms are fixed, amplified and, by the way, are irreversible.No wonder sleep deprivation has always been severely tortured.

For the average 8 hours designated person for a healthy night's rest, he observed five sleep cycles lasting up to 100 minutes.And each of them has two phases - slow and fast sleep.How do they occur?

To understand what happens during sleep, let's take a closer look stage.

REM sleep

tired or slept poorly the day before the person goes to sleep whenever possible and immediately enters a phase of so-called rapid or paradoxical sleep.

He was named so because at that time sleeping testimony EEG, heart rate and breathing are similar to figures awake person, but almost all muscles (except the diaphragm, the muscles of the auditory ossicles, as well as holding the eyelids and move the eyeball) completely losehis tone.That is what happens during sleep in his rapid (paradoxical) phase can be characterized as follows: the body is asleep, and the brain is still working.By the way, at this time we see the most vivid and memorable dreams easily.

20 minutes from the start of sleep a person enters a phase of slow wave sleep.

What happens during REM sleep

The share of non-REM sleep, as the experts found, accounting for 75% of the night's rest.Accepted seen several stages of this phase.

  1. nap.If you are healthy and go to bed on time, it takes 5-10 minutes, during which you are immersed in a deep sleep.
  2. falling asleep.This step typically lasts approximately 20 minutes.What happens in the body during sleep at this stage?The process is characterized by slowing heart rate, body temperature and a decrease in the occurrence of so-called EEG "carotid spindles" (short bursts of brain activity with a low amplitude), during which a person is practically disconnected consciousness.
  3. deep sleep.
  4. deepest delta sleep.Sleeping at this time it is difficult to awaken.Even awake, he can not be a long time to recover.It is at this stage may be manifestations of sleepwalking, enuresis, talking in his sleep and nightmares.

Then the man as if starting to wake up, enters a state of REM sleep.These phase changes occur throughout the rest, and, if the latter is sufficient, then woke up, a person feels fresh, fresh, updated.

physiological processes occurring during sleep

In the body of a sleeping man, despite his outward immobility, weakness and lack of response to stimuli (of course, if they are not very strong), runs a number of processes.

  • through the skin at this time, as a rule, a lot of moisture is evaporated, which leads to a small loss of weight.
  • increases the production of a particular protein - collagen, contributing, by the way, strengthen blood vessels and restore elasticity.Apparently, film and pop stars are not telling the whole story, saying that looking good helps them strong 8 hours of sleep (though, it is worth to clarify: not just after a hearty dinner).
  • In addition, a person in a dream growing (yes, this is not fiction mothers and grandmothers who do not know how to put to bed restless child), as its growth hormone at this time has the largest concentration of the blood.
  • As the dive man in a dream he had one after another relaxed almost all muscles of the body, except those that hold the eyelids closed.They remain tense, and eyeballs moving beneath them, which, incidentally, shows the stage of deep REM sleep.

As you can see, the processes in the body during sleep varied - with the help of a kind carried out cleaning, prepares the body for daytime wakefulness.

What is the dream brain

The fact that our brain is not dormant during sleep, knows probably everyone.During a night's rest, he almost does not respond to external stimuli, and concentrates on domestic needs, fulfilling the main task at this moment - sorting and processing of daily information and sending it to the appropriate conservation areas' territory entrusted to him. "

the way, through this process, everything that happens to the brain during sleep, can be considered a sort of "spring cleaning."It helps us to wake up in the morning with the other - a clear and logical - look at problems that seemed insurmountable yesterday.A school and college students have long benefited from this, noting that the best thing to remember is that stuff that you study before going to bed.

If a person has been a regular chronic sleep deprivation, the brain is not enough time to organize and put in a "memory" this information, which leads to complaints about the fog in my head and a strong memory impairment.

How does "washing" of the brain

asking the question, "What happens in the body during sleep?", The researchers found that a similar condition to the cells and tissues of the brain is like a kind of "cleansing enema."After toxins that enter the body through food, or as a result of failures caused by stress are deposited not only in the gastrointestinal tract, liver or kidneys.They prove to be accumulated in the cerebrospinal fluid, as in the spine and in the cranium.

In the dream, the surrounding neurons glial cells shrink, diminishing in size, due to what the intercellular space becomes more and allows you to pass more fluid.And she, in turn, flushes toxins from nerve tissue, relieving us from the formation of protein plaques that might block the transmission of signals between neurons and contribute to the early development of Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's.

What does a person need to sleep?

So, we discussed what is happening in the body during sleep.On vacation and then to climb after him cheerful and refreshed, each of us requires a different time.Total sleep people spend an average of five to ten hours a day.Somnology (professionals involved in sleep problems and its impact on human health) believe that this is much more important for us is not quantity but quality night's rest.

noticed that the people sleeping quietly and rarely changing posture, feel more refreshed in the morning and relaxed than those who tossed a lot.But for some reason, seems to be taking a comfortable position in bed, we, nevertheless, change the position?It turns out that our night movements are largely dependent on external stimuli - flashes of light, noise, changes in air temperature, stirring of lying next to a spouse or a child, and so on. N.

Somnology believe that 70% of these movements reflects badly on the quality of sleep, or ratheron its ability to move in a deep phase.And it just does not give a person full night's sleep.Often we change posture and makes the solid surface, and crowded stomach, and poor health, and therefore, going for a vacation, you need to create for itself the most comfortable conditions.

about prophetic dreams

Somnology studying dreams, understood, and so-called "prophetic dreams" and came to the conclusion that in fact there is nothing mystical.Trying to solve them, it is not necessary to imagine what happens to the soul during sleep.It's not her wandering in the higher worlds, not - simply in a phase of slow wave sleep the human brain picks up signals from the internal organs, and transmits them in the form of vivid images.Man sees the colorful dreams and interpret them can, based on simple analogies.

For example, if you remove the rotten vegetables or raw meat (in a word, inedible products) - means there is a problem with the digestive system.And the nightmares that people suffocated or drowned, as a rule, evidence of malfunction of the respiratory organs.Burning fire can OF DREAMS angina, as one of the symptoms of this disease is just the burning sensation in his chest.

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

value is difficult to overestimate sleep

Everything that happens in the body during sleep is haunted by the researchers.It is as necessary and irreplaceable human condition study physicians, psychiatrists, and even esoteric.

Around called threads, there are many myths and sensationalism, but do not get too carried away by them, as a dream - it is primarily the ability to restore vitality and preserve health.So take care of your sleep and treat respectfully described physiological process!