What happens when we sleep?

I recently watched a documentary called "The Science of Sleep".

This documentary discussed what our brain goes through from the time we lay our head down to sleep to the time that we wake up. It offered excellent insight into the way our brain helps keep us alive.

One interesting discovery sleep scientists made was that our dreams and nightmares help us in our daily survival. When we do not have enough stress in the day, our brain often makes up for that while we sleep and we can have very stressful or busy dreams. On the flip-side, if we are overloaded with stress in the day, our brain helps us cope by providing horrible dreams for us to deal with, so that our brain can physically handle the overload of stress when we are awake.

It is amazing that so much good can come from horrible dreams. Often, our dreams help us see angles that we may have never seen before in the day time. Dreams and nightmares say something about where we are in our lives and can often give us tips for survival.

When I was a nanny, a sweet little 2 year old woke up from a nap. She told me in whatever language she could about her dream. She had a nightmare that her teddy bear lost her mommy in the park and it made her very sad. I gave her a big hug and assured her that everything was okay. It was very clear that her little brain was building up her strength and ability to know what to do if she ever lost her mommy in the park, to help her cope with the stress. Our brains are an amazing thing.

Additionally, when we sleep we go through cycles. There are 3 stages calles NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) sleep which help us gradually fall deeper and deeper asleep (5 min, 10-20min, then 3rd stage) until we hit the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage which is the stage where we dream.

When we wake up mid-REM, it actually triggers the depression part of our brain, which is why waking up is often hard to do. So, feeling awful when we wake up is actually a natural thing. This is why it is also important to only take 10-20 minute naps during the day because they are far more refreshing for the brain than any longer naps and why it's also important to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night.

Hope this topic interested you as much as it interested me. Have a great day today and a wonderful REM tonight knowing that your brain is working in your favor to help you get through daily tasks.

Gracie