While we sleep, our body continues to work actively. Some processes in it are activated, while others, on the contrary, stop. We cannot monitor the body during sleep. But everything happens to us.
The nose is "sleeping"
“You can't wake me up with guns,” - those who love to sleep confidently declare. In fact, sharp sounds, regardless of the nature of their occurrence, take a person out of the stage of any, even the deepest sleep, this is the basis of the principle of the alarm clock. However, it is interesting that even the most active smells perceived in a dream are not able to awaken the sleeping person, although the brain identifies them.
Most likely, the information received by the olfactory organs will smoothly merge with the image projected by the brain, and while your half is frantically running around with a cup of coffee, you will simply continue drinking coffee at the top of the Eiffel Tower in your sleep.
Neither the pungent smell of pyridine, nor the pleasant smell of mint, which scientists at Brown University (USA) used in their experiment, did not awaken the participants in the experiment. This explains the large percentage of deaths of sleepers during a fire - a person simply does not notice the intense smell of burning.
Sleep movements
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It would seem that the lying position and the absence of the need for physical and mental activity should be expressed in a state of absolute rest. In fact, the body continues to respond to external stimuli such as light, noise, and room temperature.
Due to gravity, areas of the body in contact with the surface are subject to maximum pressure, which makes it necessary to change the position several times during sleep. On average, a healthy person makes about 25 different movements during several hours of sleep.
At the same time, 70% of them have a detrimental effect on the intensity of sleep, preventing us from reaching its deep phase, which is necessary for proper rest and energy recovery. During deep sleep, most muscles are relaxed but not paralyzed, keeping the sleeper from being overly active. These processes explain the danger of sleep in a state of alcoholic intoxication, when a person does not change posture for several hours, which is fraught with increased pressure on certain parts of the body and the prospect of neuropathy.
Sleeping eyes
At the initial stage of sleep, the eyes roll upward, excluding the ingress of light on the retina, even with half-open eyelids. By the way, by the eyes you can determine in what phase of sleep the sleeper is.
During deep sleep, the eyeballs slowly move under the eyelid due to the active blood flow to the muscles and internal organs. The deepest sleep phase is also characterized by slow eye movements, but it also decreases heart rate and overall rhythm of life. And during REM sleep, blood supplies the sleeping person's brain, mental processes are activated, we see colorful pictures of sleep, and the eyes move in accordance with them. These processes are universal for both humans and animals - watch a sleeping cat and understand the trajectory along which the sparrow flew in its today's dream.
The morning is wiser than the evening
The brain, of course, does not turn off during sleep, but only switches to another mode of operation, continuing to control the ongoing processes in the body. Brain cells reduce the speed of reaction to peripheral stimuli and begin work on ordering and classifying information received during wakefulness.
This data is sorted, compared with the existing data and sent for storage in the appropriate areas of the brain. Constant lack of sleep takes time to process information, as a result of which the data is confused, and the person begins to complain about the state of memory.
In 2004, German scientists from the University of Luxembourg taught a group of volunteers to solve math problems of a certain level. The participants were offered about 100 problems. After the first part of the practice session, half of the students were offered twelve hours of sleep while the others were awake.
In the second part of the seminar, 23% of those who were awake suggested the best option for solving problems, while in the group of those who had time to sleep, this figure was 59%. This proves that during sleep information is collated and ordered, allowing you to find the optimal solution to the existing problem, which the awake person does not even suspect.
Cleansing the Brain
There are two modes of brain activity - the wakefulness mode, when a person actively thinks, thinks logically and makes decisions, as well as the sleep mode or "flushing" of the nerve tissue spaces with liquor when we are resting.
Toxins are concentrated not only in the kidneys and liver, but also in the cerebral fluid of the body. It is during sleep that the glial cells that surround and support the brain's neurons shrink, thereby increasing the intercellular space and increasing the flow of fluid that detoxifies the brain.
In a dream, the glymphatic system increases its activity approximately 10 times. If this does not happen, then plaques are formed from the toxic proteins in the brain, leading to the development of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Unfortunately, pumping fluid through the brain tissue requires a lot of energy and is incompatible with information processing, so living organisms cannot do without full-fledged prolonged sleep.
Height and weight
“When you fly, you grow up!”, My mother used to say in childhood. We hasten to please - it is not at all necessary to experience the state of flight in a dream, and if you measure your height before going to bed and immediately after waking up, then in the second case you will find the "added" 05, -1 centimeter.
During sleep, the load on the intervertebral discs is reduced, they are moistened, stretched and take up more space without being subjected to body pressure. Thus, the spine straightens, although by the evening, especially after prolonged vertical wakefulness, growth returns to its original parameters.
During sleep, the hormone leptin is also produced, which reduces hunger, while if you do not get enough sleep, you will get an active production of the opposite hormone, ghrelin, which increases appetite. True, for the first to work actively, you need to sleep for at least seven hours, and lack of sleep (4-5 hours a day) actively prevents weight loss, even with a strict diet and physical training.
If you overeat before bed, it is best to sleep on your right side to allow your stomach and intestines to handle the stress. Of course, you should eat food no later than 3-4 hours before bedtime, and then you are guaranteed a healing effect.
Anti-aging effect
Sophia Loren claimed that the secret of her beauty is a full sleep. We have no doubt about the veracity of this statement. During sleep, the body temperature and blood pressure decrease, the heart muscle relaxes and regenerates, the body switches to the mode of saving and accumulating energy.
In addition to these processes, the production of collagen, a protein that strengthens blood vessels and gives skin elasticity, is increased. Due to these properties, collagen is often used in cosmetic procedures and creams, but nothing can replace its natural production by the body.
For this reason, collagen-promoting retinoid creams are recommended before bed. In addition, during sleep, the body's tissues are renewed, but the production of growth hormone, growth hormone, can be hampered by increased insulin levels. Therefore, if you plan to get all the benefits of sleep, do not get used to a late dinner.
During sleep, cleansing of skin cells is accelerated (especially in the first half of the night), oxygen metabolism improves, toxins are removed and tissue strength increases, which leads to a decrease in wrinkles, an increase in elasticity and a visible rejuvenating effect.