10 Things You May Not Know About Sleep

Sleep is absolutely essential for human being. Good night’s sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your overall health and well-being. It gives your body time and energy to recover from the day’s stresses, and to stay sharp and focused each day. Despite scientists still not figuring out the process entirely, we still do not know a lot about this daily activity. Every mammal, bird and most reptiles, amphibians and fish require sleep to function. Good sleep strategies are essential to deep, restorative sleep.

Here are 10 Things You May Not Know About Sleep.

1. What Goes on When You Sleep

We spend about one-third of our lives asleep. But far from being wasted time, from the moment we slide into unconsciousness, a whole raft of functions takes place to make sure that we get optimal benefit from our nightly rest. Sleep is the time the body can undergo repair and detoxification. During sleep your brain recharges, your cells repair themselves, your body releases important hormones.

2. Amount of Sleep

There is a big difference between the amount of sleep you can get by on and the amount you need to function optimally. Just because you’re able to operate on seven hours of sleep doesn’t mean you wouldn’t feel a lot better and get more done if you spent an extra hour or two in bed. The best way to figure out if you’re meeting your sleep needs is to evaluate how you feel as you go about your day. If you’re logging enough hours, you’ll feel energetic and alert all day long, from the moment you wake up until your regular bedtime. You need different amounts of sleep depending on your age: 

babies - 16 hours

3-12 years old - 10 hours

13-18 years old - 10 hours

19-55 years old - 8 hours

over 65 years old - 6 hours

3. Dreams

Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Dreams mainly occur in the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep - when brain activity is high and resembles that of being awake. REM sleep is revealed by continuous movements of the eyes during sleep. At times, dreams may occur during other stages of sleep. However, these dreams tend to be much less vivid or memorable. Men have dreams about other men 70% of the time while women dream equally about men and women. We can only dream about faces we have already seen, whether we actively remember them or not. Within 5 minutes of waking up, 50% of your dream is forgotten. Within 10 minutes 90% is gone.

4. Parasomnia

Parasomnias are a category of sleep disorders that involve abnormal and unnatural movements, behaviors, emotions, perceptions, and dreams that occur while falling asleep, sleeping, between sleep stages, or during arousal from sleep. Crimes committed on parasomnia include: sleep driving, writing bad checks, murder, child molesting, rape, etc.

5. Sleeping Position

The sleeping position is the body configuration assumed by a person during or prior to sleeping. What position do you sleep in? Studies found that sleeping positions affect personality and sleep as well, by determining how we feel when we wake up. Sleeping positions may determine your personality. Here some most common sleeping positions

a. Feotal (41%) - People are gruff initially, but have warm and open hearts

b. Log (15%) - Social butterflies

c. The Yearner (13%) - Perceived as open, but truly suspicious

d. Soldier (8%) - Reserved

e. Freefall (7%) - Fun and fantastic at parties

f. Starfish (5%) - excellent listeners

6. Sleep Deprivation

Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function. Few studies have compared the effects of acute total sleep deprivation and chronic partial sleep restriction. You will die from sleep deprivation before foods deprivation. It takes two weeks to starve, but 10 days without sleep can kill you.

7. Dreaming is Normal

People who do not dream generally have personality disorder. The deepest, most restful stage of sleep is called REM sleep, for “rapid eye movement.” That usually lasts for about 2 hours, and during that time is when you have dreams and your eyelids flutter. People who have sleeping problems often get plenty of hours of sleep, they just don’t get enough REM sleep for one reason or another. That leaves a person feeling very tired the next day. If a person goes too long without REM sleep, that can have very serious physical and mental consequences.

8. Wet Dreams

A ‘wet dream’ is also called a nocturnal emission and occurs during puberty when boys start making semen. A common cause of semen leakage is nocturnal emissions, commonly referred to as wet dreams. As the term suggests, this type of leakage occurs at night, specifically while a male is sleeping. An arousing dream can prompt semen to be released involuntarily, and the male will usually be unaware that it is happening until he wakes up. Nocturnal emissions are most common for pubescent and adolescent males and are considered a normal part of development.

9. Wet the Beds

One out of fifty teenagers still wet their beds. Though it’s often unreported, many adults wet their bed unintentionally throughout their lives and are too scared or ashamed to even tell their doctors. Bed wetting, usually associated with children, could be a sign of a more serious condition in adults.

10. Blind People Also Dream

Those born blind experience dreams involving emotion, sound, smell and touch instead of sight. People who have lost eyesight after birth can see images in their dreams, while people who are born blind can not see any images but their dreams are very vivid and full of different sounds, smells, sensations and emotions. This is hard for a person with normal vision to imagine, but the psychological need for sleep is very strong and can overcome every obstacle to make it happen.

Source : http://www.wonderslist.com