Sleep is a crucial aspect of everyone’s 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, however, is at its most active. You cannot make up for sleep that has already been skipped. Truth is, once you slip into that unconscious rest, your body does a number of things. First, your body relaxes all of its muscle movement. It accomplishes this by releasing a chemical cocktail of neurotransmitters to quiet skeletal muscle movement. This is essential to maintain a deep sleep, as it’s a tad difficult to sleep if you’re doing the Macarena on your bed. Next, it lowers your body temperature. As the human body operates throughout the day, we burn a significant amount of calories. Our body reduces out caloric burn rate during sleep by reducing body temperature to a lower level than what it normally operates at. This is similar to the way that large mammals hibernate during the winter. After that, your body does something interesting—it elevates your overall brain activity.
Your brain is more active during sleep than it is during the day. There are many theories, but most experts agree that your brain is busy filing all your thoughts for the day, and preparing to take care of other tasks as well. It does this during a period of sleep called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. This is exactly as it sounds. Your eyes quickly move around wildly as your brain kicks into high gear to work through all the tasks it needs before you wake up the next morning. It forgets useless information and works on releasing the necessary chemicals and control measures to ensure the revitalization of the rest of the body. One of the tasks it has is to also repair muscle damage and regenerate cellular integrity. During this process, your body also does a full toxin cleanse. This is why you sometimes feel lethargic or fatigued after a rough night’s sleep. Your brain doesn’t have enough REM cycles to complete all the bodily functions, and as a result, you feel less-than-enthusiastic for the next day. Another crucial part of sleep is the bolstering of the immune system. Those who are chronically sleep deprived can actually show a lower amount of the antibodies necessary to fight infections. All of these things occur at a cyclical pace as well, as REM sleep occurs in cycles. In fact, in between these cycles, you can actually wake up.
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’s 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.
