Sleep is a crucial\naspect of everyone\u2019s life, yet one that a lot of us choose to neglect. Many\npeople negate their need for sleep by trying to catch up on it on the weekends.\nThe reality of it is much more complicated than that. When you sleep, your body\nis at rest; your mind, however, is at its most active. You cannot make up for\nsleep that has already been skipped. Truth is, once you slip into that\nunconscious rest, your body does a number of things. First, your body relaxes\nall of its muscle movement. It accomplishes this by releasing a chemical\ncocktail of neurotransmitters to quiet skeletal muscle movement. This is\nessential to maintain a deep sleep, as it\u2019s a tad difficult to sleep if you\u2019re\ndoing the Macarena on your bed. Next, it lowers your body temperature. As the\nhuman body operates throughout the day, we burn a significant amount of\ncalories. Our body reduces out caloric burn rate during sleep by reducing body\ntemperature to a lower level than what it normally operates at. This is similar\nto the way that large mammals hibernate during the winter. After that, your\nbody does something interesting\u2014it elevates your overall brain activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your brain is more\nactive during sleep than it is during the day. There are many theories, but\nmost experts agree that your brain is busy filing all your thoughts for the day,\nand preparing to take care of other tasks as well. It does this during a period\nof sleep called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. This is exactly as it sounds.\nYour eyes quickly move around wildly as your brain kicks into high gear to work\nthrough all the tasks it needs before you wake up the next morning. It forgets\nuseless information and works on releasing the necessary chemicals and control\nmeasures to ensure the revitalization of the rest of the body. One of the tasks\nit has is to also repair muscle damage and regenerate cellular integrity.\nDuring this process, your body also does a full toxin cleanse. This is why you\nsometimes feel lethargic or fatigued after a rough night\u2019s sleep. Your brain\ndoesn\u2019t have enough REM cycles to complete all the bodily functions, and as a\nresult, you feel less-than-enthusiastic for the next day. Another crucial part\nof sleep is the bolstering of the immune system. Those who are chronically\nsleep deprived can actually show a lower amount of the antibodies necessary to\nfight infections. All of these things occur at a cyclical pace as well, as REM\nsleep occurs in cycles. In fact, in between these cycles, you can actually wake\nup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The transitional stages of sleep are usually the time’s people often wake up the most. The brain can also wake you up in the case of an emergency survival mechanic. An example of this would be going to sleep after a night of drinking, then randomly waking up in the middle of the night with no real reason to do so. It\u2019s likely that your body is preparing to purge your stomach, and it will not let you go back to sleep until it has done so. People who regularly wake up during sleep can actually have a more severe, underlying sleep disorder. These can be diagnosed through sleep studies and other means of examination. One such sleep disorder, Sleep Apnea, is one of the most undiagnosed sleep disorders out there, and arguably one of the most severe disorders. Sleep Apnea occurs when your body stops breathing during sleep. Often times, snoring can be a precursor to sleep apnea. It can also reduce your overall life expectancy as well. Getting diagnosed, and being treated early, can have immensely positive effects on your life. If your spouse\/partner complains that you snore at night, it might be time to go see the doctor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sleep is a crucial aspect of everyone\u2019s life, yet one that a lot of us choose to neglect. Many people negate their need for sleep by trying to catch up on it on the weekends. The reality of it is much more complicated than that. When you sleep, your body is at rest; your mind, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[692],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleep"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}