How Does Sleep Work?
- erudite .
- Dec 3, 2021
- 3 min read
By Anoushka Ghosh
Sleeping is quite a common part of our daily life whether it be to take a short power nap or to actually get that 8-hour sleep for the better of our body. However, the real reason as to why sleep itself is important is quite a mystery. One is simply spending ⅓ of a day sleeping, and this itself increases your vulnerability. Think about this same occurrence during a period before civilization, and the same state of unconsciousness could be dangerous for all animals alike. This would suggest that sleep itself was quite important for us to risk our lives in years before civilization. So, why is it so important?
Sleep is an essential function that allows our mind and body to recharge, and this increased rest can aid our body in fighting against diseases since it strengthens the immune system. When you lack the sleep you direly need, it would eventually lead to a lot of complications in your health. As mentioned before, sleep is a period of unconsciousness and therefore is a passive activity in which our brain is still engaged in a large number of activities. The whole process occurs within stages.
We go through two different stages of sleep: Non-REM sleep and REM sleep. REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement which shows the rapid eye movement that occurs under the eyelids. We begin first with the non-REM sleep which contains four processes. We first begin with the stage of being awake and falling asleep. Then, the second stage is light sleep where our body is regulating the beating of the heart rate, and the body temperature drops. The third and fourth stages are deep sleep. Then, the stage of REM begins. Our brains are so active as we are storing information taken in the day into their respective areas, and that is why it aids in learning and memorizing. We can produce intense dreams during the REM stage as our brain is active.
What about sleeping schedules? Most of us struggle with maintaining that same sleeping schedule as we reach certain points in our lives. May it be high school or getting your first job, it’s quite hard to finish a large amount in the span of our waking hours. So, we stay up and when we stay up we feel sleepy. The main reason we feel sleepy is because of the biological clocks in our bodies. Our internal body clock regulates our sleep cycle and controls the period of time where we are tired and refreshed. This works with the use of the circadian rhythms which has an effect on the biological clock. This mostly occurs due to its cues being light and it giving signals to the biological clock for different body processes that occur within the 24-hour period of a day. The circadian rhythms coordinate mental and physical systems throughout the body like how the digestive system starts producing enzymes around meal times and the endocrine system to regulate hormones to suit normal energy expenditure.
Therefore, our body is quite a mystery intertwined with many systems all over the body. Sleep is an essential process within our own body because it allows us human beings to regulate many body processes with the use of components like the circadian rhythms and our internal biological clock. It is essential to get both non-REM sleep and REM sleep because studies have shown that both types of phases are significant in our learning processes. You need to remember that you have to get those 8-hours of sleep to work at your optimal pace. Your health is first before anything else.
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