Fun facts about sleep

Things you don't know about sleep
Can we learn while we sleep?
New research has suggested that information transferred between the hippocampus (the area for short term memory) and the cerebral cortex in performed while in deep sleep.

Why do men feel sleepy after sex?
Men feel sleepy after sex because of the exercise, orgasms are reached when you let go of "all fear and anxiety" -this relaxes the body.

Men release norepinephine, serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin, nitric oxide (NO), and the hormone prolactin. Prolactin makes you tired (even stronger while intercourse than for masturbation prolactin is realeased for times more)

Oxitocin and vasopressin are also associated with sleep and bonding (feeling of closeness with the sexual partner)

Sleeping solves your problems
Sleeping on it realy makes a difference.
Sleep strengthens memory and extracts information from within the day, sleep actually "extracts the meaning of your day", on some experiments people do better a task after going to sleep, the brain categorizes the information of the day.

Naps improve memory
Daytime naps improve memory! It also helps you remember important facts.
Naps also cut risk of heart disease.

Too much sleep -not good!
People who sleep more than 9 hours a day are more likely to develop Parkinson.

Sleeping over nine hours per night (for an adult) is just as bad as sleeping 6 or less.

Sleepiness can be cured with blue light
Waking up drowsy and sleeping may be caused by delayed sleep phase syndrome (your internal clock and the time people have set do not match)

The solution: fast forward your internal clock! By wearing goggles and blocking the exposure of blue light when you wake up and waiting for your minimum core body temperature later in the morning for light exposure your internal clock is set.

When you get enough blue light exposure you feel sleepy at the right time. Expose yourself to enough blue light during the day, Blue LEDs will do fine.

sleepy is just like drunk!
If you lose two hours of sleep, you can impair your performance equal to a .05 blood-alcohol level

Sleepy teens
Teenagers should sleep 9 hours and young children require 10 hours of sleep.

Sleep or be sick
sleep deprivation produces higher levels of corticosterone, a stress hormone and fewer brain cells are produced. Also the nerve cell production (neurogenesis) is severely disturbed and may be what produces the cognitive deficits with people with prolonged sleep deprivation.

It seems that the body processes sugar while in deep sleep, if you don't sleep well, sugar levels in your body will rise dramatically.

Why should Sleep?

Why should Sleep?

Sleeping may be considered as a big waste of time. Nevertheless, sleep appears to be necessary, there is still a ever lasting debate about why we sleep? How much sleep is needed?

No one knows and understands clearly why we sleep, but sleep has a impotent restorative function.

Sleep Restorative Process
This theory of sleep suggests that sleep helps the body recover from all the work it did. Experiments have shown that the more physical activity an animal does, the more NREM an animal will have. Also, if people are deprived of NREM, then they may experience physical tiredness. If people are deprived of REM sleep, then they can get anxious and irritable. REM sleep has also been considered as important for memory and learning.

Deep Sleep necessity
Good night sleep is essential needed for the normal, healthy functioning of the human body as well as mental health including the immune system. Sleep helps to improve the immune system that is one’s ability to fight against diseases.

Body rests and restores its energy levels during sleep
Sleep is an active state that supports and improves both the physical and mental well-being.
Sleep is often helps to cope with stress, recover from illness.

Necessity of sleep is well understood by an animal studies, which have shown that sleep is the must for the survival. The normal life span of rats is 2-3 years. However, rats deprived of sleep live for only about 3 weeks.

Understanding Sleep
During sleep the brain undergoes a characteristic cycle of brain wave activities that includes intervals of dreaming. Once sleep was thought to be as a passive state, however now it is understand as a dynamic process and the brains are active during sleep. Sleep is considered as a complicated physiological phenomenon that scientists still not able to understand fully.

Brains state of activity during sleep and wakefulness result from different activating and inhibiting forces that was caused with in the brain. Neurotransmitters are chemicals involved in nerve signaling which controls whether one is asleep or awake by acting the neurons (nerve cells) located in different parts of the brain. Neurons located in the brainstem induce sleep by inhibiting other parts of the brain that keeps one awake.