Lets's talk about sleeping in humans (Science of sleep)

Introduction

Do you know you spend about one third of your lifetime sleeping? let me make this a little bit simpler for you. If an individual spends 60 years on earth, he must have spent a whopping 20 years just sleeping alone. Wrapping one's head around this, would suggest that if nature could find sleep so necessary that we end up spending one third of our lives sleeping, then sleeping must be one of the most important/essential aspect of life. I mean that sort of importance that places sleep at the level of food and water.

Studies show that having quality sleep at the right time does a lot of good to the brain, especially the part of our brain that is associated with maintaining our memories and making new ones. sleep is also known to influence how the nerve cells in our body interact with one another.

Recent advances in the world of technology, like the use of brain scans, now show that our brains doesn't just lie dormant while we are asleep. During sleep time, the brain plays very important roles, one of which is acting like a house keeper, to eliminate toxins which have accumulated in the brain while an individual is awake

What are the different stages of sleep

The rapid eye movement sleep and the non rapid eye movement (non-REM, which houses three of the stages) are the two basic stages of sleep. In the course of a typical night sleep, an individual goes through these different stages, including REM and non-REM sleep stages.

Stage 1.

This is a non-REM sleep stage, where the individual is just transiting from the open-eyed state to early time of sleep. This stage usually lasts within few minutes. Certain body activities slowly relaxes, including your muscle activities, together with your heartbeats, breathing and some other body movements, including the eye movements. At this time, there is an observed slow change in your brain waves, slowly deviating from that of wakefulness.

Stage 2.

At this non-REM sleep stage, eye movements cease. This is the stage where there is an observed light sleep, just before deep sleep. Other body actions like heartbeat, breathing and muscles relaxation gets a little bit more intense than that of stage 1. Body temperature drops, and eye movements stop in in this stage.

Stage 3.

This is another non-REM sleep stage. It is a stage of deep sleep. In this stage, the heartbeat and breathing is at its lowest level. The muscles are very relaxed and it is quite difficult to awaken an individual during this stage.

REM sleep.

This stage usually occurs approximately ninety minutes after an individual falls asleep.
In this stage, the eyeballs speedily moves from one side to another, even while the eyelids are closed. The breathing rate becomes faster, and a huge percentage of our dreaming occurs at this stage, but there is no movement of the arms or legs while dreaming, because they become a little bit paralyzed for a short time.

Science of sleep

Our everyday sleep and arousal is greatly affected by the hypothalamus, which is located at the brain and contains certain nerve cells, acting as centers of control

Another important part of the brain which influences sleep is the brain stem. The brain stem is Located at the base of the brain, the brain stem influences our wake and sleep by communicating with the hypothalamus to navigate the conversion that takes place between wake and sleep.

Also present in the brain stem, includes pons, medulla, and midbrain. There are also some sleeping-promoting cells which are present in the hypothalamus and brain stem. The Work of these sleeping-promoting cells is to produce a chemical, called GABA. GABA basically reduces the actions of arousal centers in the brain stem and hypothalamus.

The pons and medulla present in the brain stem, performs a very vital role in the REM sleep which includes communicating with the relax muscles in our bodies which are responsible for our body movements and posture. This signal sends the message "Dont act" This is why we in most occasions, stay calm while dreaming.

The cerebral cortex which is responsible for interpretation and processing of information from long and short term memory, gets information from our senses with the thalamus acting as a relay. The thalamus gets silent during some stages in our sleep time. This lets us tune out the external world.

There are also other times when the thalamus is active. This is during REM sleep, where the thalamus sends sounds, images, and other sensations to the cerebral cortex, which shows up in our dreams. The basal fore brain also influences sleep and arousal by releasing adenosine. One way to distort the functions of adenosine is the consumption of caffeine. The midbrain also play an important role in our arousal system.

What is a polysomnogram (PSG)

A polysomnogram (PSG) has a two dimensional meaning. It is a tool used in the study of sleep and also in determining an individuals sleeping disorder. During a polysomnogram, the sleep technician closely observes the patient while sleeping in a sleep clinic. Sleep clinic? Yh! You heard me right. But this time, the clinic looks more like a comfortable hotel room, than a hospital.

Polysomnogramy involves the use of some equipments to check some of our body activities, like muscle activities(e.g. limb and eye movements), brain activities, breathing and heart rate patterns, etc. The patient is observed all through the four stages of sleep, in order to determine any abnormality which can be attributed to a sleep disorder

During a polysomnogram, all the above activities are recorded, using a video and an audio device. This is to help store a detailed data of an individuals sleep pattern, a specialist can then observe further to see if the individual actually went through the different stages of sleep. The final result, then determines if the individual would need further attention, test or a specific treatment strategy, if a sleeping defect is observed.

Lets talk about dreaming while sleeping

Dreams are simply images constructed by the mind, while asleep. Even though different theories about why we dream, have been explained several times, no concrete proof has surfaced, to back up any of these theories.

Dreaming is a very important part of sleeping. It is said that every individual experiences at least 2hours of dreaming everyday. Did I just hear you say 'but I dont remember having any dream last night'? well, you are not alone on this, I don't remember having any either.

Some say this 2 hours dream is as a result of our every day activities clouding our thoughts during sleep time, which is why individuals who undergo much stress, tend to have more scary dreams. Others say we dream at least four to six times everyday, but rarely remembers even one or two.

There are people that believe we get most of our mind blowing ideas from dreams we dont remember, so they always sleep with a thought in mind. To me, I know it is true most of our awesome ideas and decisions comes through after we sleep over them. However, I don't think they get revealed to us while we sleep (dream). The mind just have a way of getting renewed and refreshed, after relaxing the brain. This way, awesome ideas easily come our way.

Sleeping disorders

Sleeping disorders are also known as somnipathy, and is said to occur when there is an upset in the normal sleep pattern of an individual or animal. An environmental cause include excessive alcohol consumption, an example of a medical cause include asthma, physical disturbances and psychiatric disorders like depression, could also lead to some sleeping disorders

One of the most popular sleeping disorder which occurs when there is a difficulty in falling or staying asleep with no specific cause, is called Insomnia others include sleep apnea, narcolepsy, bed wetting, sleepwalking, etc. Some of these disorders goes ahead to affect the physical, social, or mental well being of the patient.

Treatment of any sleep disorder can get tricky certain times. There are different categories of treating sleeping disorders, some include: psychtherapeutic treatment, rehabilitation, medication, etc. sleeping disorder treatment gets tricky because different individuals respond to different treatment types differently. There are certain factors that determines the treatment strategy to be used on a patient, some include: medical history, psychiatric history, etc.

Here are some sleeping tips you might find helpful

While we try to Demystify sleeping disorders, it is also good we understand that there are certain tips that could cause us to have a good sleep. Some of these tips include:

• Having nicotine, caffeine, or alcoholic drinks before bed have been traced to influence certain sleeping disorders. Avoid having them late before bed.

• It is advised you exercise 20-30 minutes every day, it is best done few hours before bed time.

• you could also set up a sleeping schedule. This is mostly done by individuals who are very busy during the day.

• It is best you avoid watching Tv or operating computer few hours before sleep. Instead you should try relaxing, by having a relaxing routine, which could be, reading, taking a warm bath, etc. The idea is not to lie in bed awake, instead you should try any of these routine or listen to good music till you feel sleepy

• Also ensure a good temperature, avoid very bright lights and if you use music as a sleep routine, ensure it isn't too loud before

while all these are important, we must understand and appreciate the distinctiveness of our different individual bodies. What I am simply trying to say is, what works for one person, might not work for another. Therefore, we must consciously look out for which is best for us, and take good advantage of it.

Can we actually track sleep via technology?

The world is fast paced, technology now has a role to play in our daily lives, ranging from using robots to perform surgery, down to flying a man to the moon with clear cut precision. In the area of sleeping, technology also play an important role, as there are now sleeping aid gadgets and apps which could be used to aid sleep

Some sleep aid gadgets, which includes the use of bracelet, head band, smart watches, and bedside monitors, have now been known to aid sleep, I mean help people to sleep and also wake up, sometimes with high a precision rate

Some of these apps and gadgets are wired to examine our sleeping data. this can be done by monitoring our respiration and heart beat. These advanced technologies could also enter sounds and movements made by an individual while asleep, and the total amount of time spent sleeping everyday.

Conclusion

The role of sleep in the vitality of our everyday health cannot be overemphasized. The science of sleep relates to us, how our brain functions while asleep, and the different vital brain parts that play different roles while we sleep. Technology also plays an important role in our day to day sleep pattern, as there are now sleeping equipments that wakes us up and makes us sleep whenever we want to. If you ever notice any funny symptom or irregularity in your sleep, it is best you see a sleep technician, before the problem escalates.

Thanks
written by: @akiripromise.

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Reference

[1] Polysomnogram test

[2] Sleep disorders, webmd

[3] Wikipedia

[4] webmd, Insomnia

[5] Science of sleep

[6] Sleep stages

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