There was a time when Hypnos and Thanatos, sleep and death, were considered brothers; Two elements of a complementary relationship. The mythologist considered them mirror states that pierce each other. Sleep entered and came out of the bodies, without making any violence, and had dreams among his children.
The charm of each myth is that it contains much less naive wisdom than it might appear at first sight. Conversely, topicality, in its evolution, can contain naive and sometimes dangerous elements.
An example is the Sleep-Morte Association: To sleep, something is taken away from life. At the “sleep of the right” it is preferred to consider that it is not right to sleep the appropriate time. A life is worthy of being lived if it is filled with activities and, if the day is only 24 hours, we can safely reduce the time to devote to sleep.
The reality is that Little is taken to sleep little: In those suffering from insomnia, for example, the risk of heart attack increases by about 4 times.
The usefulness and importance of sleep
Therefore this can be a good opportunity to reiterate theimportance of sleep during which very interesting things happen. The brain that sleeps allows us partial isolation from external stimuli through the control of the thalamus, a structure of the diencefalo.
Some calls, such as the sound of our name or the cry of the newborn, easily cross this filter allowing us a quick conscious contact with the surrounding environment.
Sleeping in an unknown environment is another situation in which thalamic selectivity changes in order to better control the situation. The mechanisms through which this “gate” blocks some stimuli are not yet known and let others pass.
Advantages of good sleep
A good sleep, for quality and durability, is life as it allows regenerative operations. During sleep, the body removes metabolic waste products that accumulate during activities better. The detoxifying sleep effect is facilitated by the reduced body metabolism that allows regenerative processes to prevail.
In this process, the skin is also renewed, producing new cells that reintegrate the losses caused by the formation of free radicals. In sleep, the body activates growth and repair processes. Many anabolic hormones, which promote growth, are produced mainly during sleep.
Sportsmen who want to increase muscle mass consider the good sleep important as diet and training. The positive influence of sleep on hormonal systems is responsible for maintaining an optimal body weight and the strengthening of immune systems.
Sleeping for sufficient time increases learning skills and consequently intellectual performance, whether school or work.
In some studies it emerged that sleeping less than 6 hours per night leads to making wrong decisions more frequently. It has been shown that a quality sleep is essential to acquire and consolidate new memories.
The importance and function of the dream
Dreaming helps us to solve problems. This was demonstrated by a study by the University of California, in San Diego. A test was used to evaluate the Chimato Remote Associates Test creativity. Three words were presented (for example: Eden, Apple and Guglielmo Tell) and a fourth had to be found to be combined with all three (for example apple).
The test was administered to the same group of people twice throughout a day, but, between a test and another, some subjects had to always remain awake while others were asked to make a nap.
It was observed that after sleeping the performance it improved by 40% in cases where the REM sleep phase was reached, the one in which you dream. The process of dreaming is that would allow the creation of new brain connections useful to rework the information, allowing the Training of new ideas and new solutions.
In sleep we also manage to elaborate difficult moments. A study by the University of Berkeley (California) evaluated, through functional magnetic resonance imaging, the reactions of some brain areas when images were reviewed with intense emotional charge.
An interesting figure emerged concerned the functioning of the amygdala, a cerebral nucleus involved in the regulation of emotions. After dreaming, the amygdala is less reactive; In other words, dreams attempt the emotional intensity of events allowing memories to emerge with a more neutral charge in order to allow the processing and overcoming of negative experiences.
During the REM phase, the production of norepinephrine, a substance associated with stress, is reduced to normal subjects but not in those who suffer for example of post -traumatic stress disorder explaining why in these patients sleep makes recurring nightmares emerge.
Some curiosities about dreams
About a third of our life we spend it sleeping and dreaming for about six years of it. We normally do not remember 90% of what we have dreamed of already in the 10 minutes after awakening.
A study by Monash University of Melbourne explains the reason: at the end of sleep the levels of acetylcholine and norepinephrine collapses, two important neurotransmitters to fix the memories.
Several studies, including a recent recent of the University of Montreal, have found that about 70% of women and 65% of men experience Dreams with recurring content. The most common themes concern having to take an exam, fall or flight, loss of teeth, being chased or be late.
A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, which employed 6 different experiments, has highlighted how most people are convinced that dreams provide important and significant indications. There are those who still play numbers today or make decisions in relation to the content of dreams interpreted as a warmer.
The visual component and the often illogical content of dreams allow the Training of an innovative and useful thought to build new solutions. The psychologist of the Barrett has assigned to his students a series of puzzles to concentrate on before sleeping: many solutions took place immediately after awakening.
What influences the quality of dreams
A study by the Grant Macewan University of Edmonton, Canada observed that subjects who often use videogames manage to control and better direct the content of their dreams.
It seems that playing before sleeping would lead to improve awareness of your dreams, allowing for example a better management of the sense of threat that occurs during a nightmare. Most of the studies anyway He does not recommend the use of videogames before falling asleep as they alter the sleep structure and hinder the falling asleep.
According to a British research presented by the APSS (Associated Professional Sleep Societies), the prevailing content of dreams differ between men and women: the former are inclined to make dreams more frequently with more vivid and aggressive content, while the latter have more nightmares, with various content, at the same time also dreaming of romantic or family situations.
In 1982 a well -known study published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease investigated the dream activity of the blind, both blind from the birth and those who have lost their sight over the years. In the blind from birth, dreams have content involving other senses through sounds, smells and tactile sensations.
Being able to write their dreams on awakening would help improve memory. In a study by the University of California-San Cruz, comparing two groups, it was noted that those who had a diary with the contents of their night dreams were obtained in the mnemonic tests better results.
Then sleeping so good?
An important study evaluated in 21 countries a sample of about 116 thousand people, between 35 and 70 years old. The geographical areas concerned the North and South America, South and South-East Asia, China, Africa and the Middle East.
In eight years of observation, a correlation was noticed between the hours of sleep and the risk of developing a cardiovascular pathology. The risk of illness increased by 17% among the subjects who slept 9-10 hours a day and 41% if they exceeded 10 hours. Sleeping so much is not good as well as sleeping less than 6 hours is harmful to health.
Obviously what has been reported so far has a very approximate value and considers the data on large numbers. Then there is always the peculiarity of each individual: it is said that the politician Giulio Andreotti needed to sleep only 3 hours per night and that Mark Zuckerberg sleeps more than 8 hours.
In the end, as in all things, the secret lies in understanding what our body asks us in order to work better.
