health.howstuffworks.com — "Why Sleep? No one really knows why we sleep. But, there are all kinds of theories, including these: Sleep gives the body a chance to repair muscles and other tissues, replace aging or dead cells, etc. Sleep gives the brain a chance to organize and archive memories. Dreams are thought by some to be part of this process."
Oct 11, 2006 View in Crawl 4
wonderboyOct 12, 2006
Anybody else think it would be cool to fall asleep on command? There are so many classes where the time would be better served just sleeping through it. And no more having to lay in bed for an hour before I fall asleep.
Closed AccountOct 12, 2006
"Sleep gives the brain a chance to organize and archive memories. Dreams are thought by some to be part of this process."So its like an automated backup and defrag?
mattfaberOct 12, 2006
I've been a member of www.dreamviews.com forums since it started. I definitely second the recommendation. I am Crucible there.
jebuscrisisOct 12, 2006
I'm a sleep technician and recently attended a lecture by Dr. William Dement, one of the founder's of sleep research and the first to observe and document REM sleep. A couple of points of interest. 1. The part of your brain the initiates REM sleep and the part that initiates normal sleep are separate. You might say that persons with narcolepsy have that REM part of the brain starting up without permission while they are awake. Infants initiate sleep using the REM portion of their brain while adults initiate sleep through the NREM mechanism. Newborns dream or have REM sleep for almost half the night. 2. Eye movements during REM sleep (thought to be the dream state) orient with actual eye movements in your dream. Someone who is dreaming of a tennis match will have eyes moving rapidly in association with watching the match while someone driving or flying might only flick their eyes occasionally. All stages of sleep are necessary, REM and NREM. Sleep deprivation begins as soon as you wake up and builds up a 'pressure' to go to sleep while you are awake. People can function quite well if you knock out their REM sleep, but they feel horrible when they loose NREM sleep, especially stages 3/4.
dukeinlondonOct 12, 2006
Why did you get dugg down ?
captinherbOct 12, 2006
@phronko<a class="user" href="http://www.cognitivetherapy.me.uk/emdr.htm">http://www.cognitivetherapy.me.uk/emdr.htm</a><a class="user" href="http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/specialtechniques/a/gazleynet404_2.htm">http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/specialtechniques/a/gazleynet404_2.htm</a><a class="user" href="http://www.4therapy.com/consumer/about_therapy/item.php?uniqueid=7035&categoryid=401">http://www.4therapy.com/consumer/about_therapy/item.php?uniqueid=7035&categoryid=401</a>or the old standby <a class="user" href="http://tinyurl.com/22c6t">http://tinyurl.com/22c6t</a>
psychoticclownOct 14, 2006
From the page: "For any animal living in the wild, it just doesn't seem very smart to design in a mandatory eight-hour period of near-total unconsciousness every day. Yet that is exactly what evolution has done. So there must be a pretty good reason for it!"I love how the writer attributed that to "Evolution", as if it's an intelligent, thinking entity.
wspenceOct 17, 2006
Sleep disordered breathing can also cause arousals. you may think you heard a noise but it could have been in the dream itself. As for why you think you went back into REM its plausable. This happens all the time. Its sort of sleep inertia, but I see it all the time in sleep studies and its not uncommon. However, you never really know what stage of sleep your in unless you're getting a full EEG hookup next to your bed.