Experiments at the limit of human capabilities have shown that a person is able to withstand without water up to 7 days; without food, you can live even longer - up to 2 months, and maybe more; without communication, people lived for years, just as without sex. And only sleep is really necessary for a person: a person cannot do without satisfaction of this need for more than five days.
Plunging into sleep, we relax not only physically - our subconscious also rests. Only recently have researchers uncovered the details of the subconscious rest that guarantees sleep.
And the most interesting thing that was found out as a result of these studies is what phase of sleep dreams are in.
When do we dream?
We actually see dreams much more often than we think - about five times during a night's rest. Just some remain in our memory, and some are forgotten. The total time allotted by the subconscious for such visions is more than an hour per day.one night. In total, during our life we watch dreams for about four years.
Yes, there are people who claim that they do not dream, but in fact, for various reasons, these stories are simply not remembered.
Since ancient times, dreams have been of great importance. In the staff of the courtiers, as a rule, there were interpreters of dreams, whose duties included understanding the details of the dream and interpreting its plot in such a way that the sovereign was satisfied. By the way, the life of the interpreter depended on it.
Healers, before making a diagnosis, interrogated the patient in the most thorough way, not missing, among other things, the details of his dreams. Nightmares were given particular importance.
Kleitman discovery
American neurophysiologist Nathaniel Kleitman holds the lead in studying the phenomenon of dreams. It was he who found out in which phase of sleep dreams are made by observing the movement of the subject's eyes during rest. In the course of his laboratory observations, Kleitman found that it is possible to change the storyline of a dream through various noise effects produced near a sleeping person. The neurophysiologist also determined through experiments how many phases of sleep exist, having studied in detail the features of each of them.
Kleitman found out that there are two phases of sleep, each of which performs certain functions. He described each of them in detail and gave them names: paradoxical and slow.
From what phase of sleep dreams are in,depends on their emotional orientation and realism:
- Dreams that we see in the paradoxical phase are distinguished by the complexity of the storyline, the brightness of emotions and the sharpness of perception.
- Dreams that we see in the slow phase are quite close to reality, rational, and in them our consciousness works in almost the same mode as after waking up.
Associative series
Depending on which hemisphere is active at a given time, it depends on which way of thinking a person uses: logical or associative.
During sleep, as you know, associative thinking dominates over logical. If, intentionally or inadvertently, next to a sleeping person, for example, pour water or ring a bell, then somehow these sound effects will be woven into the canvas of a dream. And it doesn’t matter what phase of sleep the dream is in: paradoxical or slow. Waking up, a person may remember that he dreamed of a river or that he was caught in a downpour.
However, a slight difference still exists: if dreams are dreamed in the phase of slow sleep, then it is more difficult to influence their content, the longer the dream is in time.
Here there is another subtle point: if a person, falling asleep, tuned in to a certain stimulus, then when it is activated, even if the person is in the slow sleep phase, he will wake up.
Output:
- The subconscious mind is able to evaluate external events during a night's rest, and also include these events in the imagery of a dream.
- Dreams,seen in the paradoxical phase are remembered better.
The process of falling asleep
Our body and our subconscious react to the process of going to sleep by gradually turning off all the controlling "watchmen" of the body.
Step by step, this process looks like this:
- Stage one: turning off control over the sequential train of thought. Deprived of mind control, thoughts randomly activate and disappear just as randomly.
- Stage two: loss of influence of the "here and now" factor. At this moment, a person, with a sudden awakening, will not be able to determine either his location or the time.
- Stage Three: Dream images arise, plunging the person into the reality of the dream.
Summary: if we compare the stories of the subjects about dreams of the third stage and dreams of the paradoxical phase, they will turn out to be almost identical in terms of perception.
And it turns out that the answer to the question "in what phase of sleep do you dream" suggests four possible answers: in the phases of paradoxical and slow-wave sleep, as well as when falling asleep and waking up.
Eye movement in sleep
Researchers have found that the speed of movement of his eyes indicates a person's stay in paradoxical or slow-wave sleep. So, let's move on to the question of the duration of a person's sleep phase in time, taking into account the movement of his eyes.
- Phase No. 1: the initial stage of going to sleep with a gradual shutdown of the body's control systems - FMS-1. It can be called a light nap, and its durationvaries from 5 to 10 minutes.
- Phase 2: The appearance of the first signs of light sleep, namely: the relaxation of the muscles of the body and subtle eye movements. It is this phase - FMS-2 - that gives you dreams that are especially memorable for their brightness and storyline.
Phase 3: Brainwave activity slows down, eye movements are not fixed, muscles are usually relaxed, but if the dream plot involves strenuous activities, this becomes noticeable by the increasing tension of the sleeper's muscles. This is the time of the combined FMS-3 and FMS-4, which are otherwise called "delta sleep" - a deep stage from which, upon awakening, there are no impressive memories left, but the body has time to restore energy and produce growth hormone
And then - everything is in order of the countdown: FMS-3; FMS-2; FMS-1. The path from FMS-2 to FMS-1 is accompanied by increasing eye movement, it is also called the period of rapid eye movement, or REM. But the level of relaxation of the muscles of the body will be extremely high. And it is during this phase of REM sleep, or REM (known as REM sleep), that you see dreams that are brightly colored, highly emotionally rich, and realistic.
If we take into account that the time allotted for each cycle is 90 minutes, then during the night's rest we can go through 6 cycles. However, by morning, sleep balances at the FBS level.
He althy sleep
The modern rhythm of life dictates its conditions, and a person obeys them. However, the fee for imposedthe rules are high: neuroses, heart attacks and strokes, oncology.
Sleep is not just the body's need for relaxation. In addition, during such a rest, the processes of the subconscious are structured, information is filtered, unnecessary information is discarded, and necessary information is placed in "storerooms". And for all this, nature has allocated a certain amount of time. Man, trying to reshape the laws of nature for himself, pays an exorbitant price for his arbitrariness.
There is a rule: if you fall asleep before midnight, the effect of sleep will be incomparably higher, because not only the body, but also the subconscious rests.
It is no coincidence that our ancestors were guided by the natural rhythms of sleep and wakefulness. And numerous experiments prove that this is the best way to keep both the body and the soul in a he althy state.
