Everything You Know About Sleep & Dreaming Is Wrong (Tips And Tricks To Sleep and Dream Better)

we all need it and most of us could use more we're talking about sleep it's estimated that we spend about one third of our lives sleeping yet it remains a mysterious process night after night we shut down for several hours during sleep and everything from hormone release to tissue repair goes on in our body without us even noticing it our brains generate dreams that many of us can hardly remember or make sense of there are also nightmares sleep disorders and so much more we still have so much to learn about why we sleep and how sleep works rights clinical psychologist Michael J Bruce in a Psychology Today article because there is still so much that is unknown about sleeping it's understandable that myths about sleep have emerged over the years we'll discuss some of these myths in this episode of the infographic show 12 myths about sleep that you didn't know 12 people who are not early risers are not living right there's been much debate over who is better off in life early risers or larks or late risers night outs it turns out that your health and success in life are not determined solely by what time in the morning you get up according to a BBC article there's a study that showed night owls are as healthy and wise as morning types and a little bit wealthier examples of successful night owls include BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti author James Joyce and Winston Churchill and not everyone is meant to be an early riser what determines whether or not you are is something called a cronut a sleep expert dr. Colleen Carney describes it as a sleep window inside of us she explains that its genetic and developmental factors also play a role for instance young children tend to go to sleep earlier and rise earlier but the internal sleep clock shifts in puberty so that teens want to sleep later and rise later 11:00 getting less than eight hours of sleep a night is bad for you while some people need eight hours of sleep to feel refreshed other people can get by with a little less sleep you might even live longer if you sleep a little less a 2002 study of 1.1 million participants between the ages of 30 and 102 revealed that those who had six or seven hours had a lower death rate than those who regularly slept eight or more hours or less than four the mortality rate creeps up for people who sleep too little or too much the NHS discusses studies that link a short sleep of less than six hours to a 12 percent increased risk of death and a long sleep of nine hours or more to a 30% increased risk of death however the NHS cautions that sleep needs vary by age and other factors so don't think that you are more likely to die early if you don't follow the standard pattern for sleep 10 when you wake up at night you lose sleep for only the amount of time you were awake getting up for even 15 minutes in the middle of the night can cause you to wake up feeling tired as anyone who has cared for a newborn can tell you you will feel even more fatigued if you wake up several times a night according to one source a 2014 study of people who had eight hours of interrupted sleep and those who had only four hours of sleep showed that the mood and attention of folks with interrupted sleep were just as bad as those who slept for only four hours depression and irritability were common in both groups and their ability to perform an attention task got worse the longer they kept at it nine cats will suck the breath out of an infant while the infant sleeps this myth has its origins in superstition and a few accounts of infants who were found dead with a pet cat on their chest surfaces according to Snopes one theory for why cats do this is it's because they're jealous of the attention that the baby is getting and the cat wants to eliminate the competition Snopes acknowledges that cats could upon extremely rare instances accidentally cause of death by smothering but cats do not do it with malice aforethought it also turns out that two accounts of infants suffocated by cats turned out not to be true one case presented in a 1929 article in the Nebraska State Journal was empathetically denied by the doctor who supposedly described the incident in the December 2000 case of six-week-old Kyrian Payne who was found dead in his crib with the family cat laying on the baby's face pathologist discovered that it was not the cat but sudden infant death syndrome that killed him eight eating cheese before bedtime gives you nightmares there have been a few studies to determine the accuracy of this myth and the results are mixed in a 2015 study of 396 freshmen college students 17.8 percent of them blamed cheese and other dairy products for causing both disturbing and bizarre dreams however a 2005 study of 200 people by the British cheese board showed none reported nightmares and many had pleasant night referees according to a live science article different cheeses had different effects on dreams with blue Stilton producing the trickiest dreams of things like warrior kittens and vegetarian crocodiles this limited research seems to indicate that eating cheese before bedtime may cause a few people to have bad dreams but not everyone else but is ultimately likely nothing more than a placebo effect caused by people knowing ahead of time about the myth 7 feeling tired is the only long-term effect of not getting enough sleep while weariness is an obvious consequence of sleep deprivation it's not the only one a Business Insider article describes some other negative health effects of a lack of sleep including memory problems increased cancer risk depression and anxiety heart disease and Alzheimer's linked buildups in the brain deprive yourself of too much sleep and you could die in 2012 time reported that a Chinese soccer fan died from exhaustion after staying up 11 nights in a row in attempts to watch every single European Championship game keep that in mind the next time you want to binge watch stranger things 6 sleeping pills are a good way to deal with insomnia it is tempting to take a sleeping pill if you're having trouble falling asleep but you are better off not doing it first of all sleeping pills do not really help you sleep in this book why we sleep unlocking the power of sleep and dreams UC Berkeley neuroscience and psychology professor Matthew Walker argues that people who take sleeping pills like ambien are sedated rather than sleeping it's not the same type of rest that we get when we fall asleep on our own second it's important to keep in mind that sleeping pills like any other medication pose health risks for those taking them according to an independent article some research indicates that zolpe item ambien may weaken the brain cell connections associated with learning it may be causing memory damage over time sleep expert dr. Daniel Kripke states that the risk of death from taking sleeping pills 30 times or more a month was not much less than the risk of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day five you should never wake a sleepwalker people are afraid to wake up sleep walkers because of stories that doing so could harm the sleepwalker one sleep website states urban legend suggests that waking a sleepwalker could cause a heart attack coma or even brain damage but also describes these outcomes as highly unlikely one common recommendation for dealing with the sleepwalker is to try to guide the sleepwalker back to bed because this is easier than waking a sleepwalker up as sleep scientist dr. mark malt says in a live science article while it wouldn't necessarily hurt to try to wake a sleepwalker it's notoriously difficult to rouse them in the state some sleepwalkers may react violently to being awake so if you decide to wake up a sleepwalker make sure you do it out of their reach and with a loud noise so that you don't get hit accidentally for the moon affects people's sleep cycles this myth has been passed off as fact in a number of news articles there have been a few studies about this issue but they are problematic according to a live science article there was a 1999 study suggesting that people tended to suffer sleep deprivation around the time of full moon but there's no evidence that the findings of the study have been tested or verified with any numbers or rigorous study of any kind other recent studies provided contradictory results one small study of 33 volunteer adults in 2013 found that the participants slept less during the full moon even when they could not see the moon and were not aware of the current lunar phase while another broad review of sleep moon research in 2014 by the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry revealed no statistically significant correlation between the lunar cycle and sleep 3 you swallow 8 spiders per year when you sleep you'll probably be relieved to know this myth has been debunked by spider experts according to a scientific American article the myth flies in the face of both spider and human biology rod Crawford the arachnid curator at the Burke Museum of Natural History and culture explains that a sleeping person is not something a spider would willingly approach this is especially true if the person is snoring the noise would scare it away in addition most people would feel a spider crawling on our faces in wakeup while it's certainly possible for a person to swallow a spider there's a sore lack of eyewitness for such a frequent event as 8 spiders a year - humans can't sleep upright it's not easy but it is possible for humans to sleep upright in a BBC article expert Dirk Young Dyke said we can sleep in a chair we can sleep standing up but we're not as good at it as other creatures for example Birds there's some support for Dyke statement it's common practice for Buddhist monks to sleep upright they have a special meditation box that allows them to set up and sleep in a posture that supposedly helps them wake up refreshed there are also anecdotal stories of people who are able to sleep standing up BBC reports that soldiers on sentry duty are among those who have been known to take 40 winks standing up the main problem with both types of upright sleeping is that it's difficult to reach REM sleep but not reaching REM sleep in this situation might be good in terms of safety you lose muscle tone when you're in REM sleep so you might find yourself falling down unless you have something to prop you up one people can't sleep with their eyes open this myth is not true according to one source a condition called nocturnal Lago thalamus can cause people to sleep with their eyes open their eyes may be fully or partially open because of an inability for the eyelid to close completely it's considered a form of facial paralysis brought on by a variety of factors including Bell's palsy infection stroke surgery and trauma sleeping with eyes open also occurs in instances of sleepwalking a Psychology Today article notes that sleepwalking usually is an eyes open behavior sleepwalkers need to have their eyes open to be able to get around and perform routine tasks such as eating and even driving one source describes how sleep drivers may look glassy and dazed but they can still literally see things in front of them you're at school or perhaps work we are giving an important presentation in front of a crowd of people and you suddenly realize that you're naked though the details may be different many people around the world have had this common dream researchers largely believe that this dream is about invulnerability anxiety or worry what if in the middle of a naked in public dream you could be conscious that you're in a dream and even change the outcome of the dream instead of feeling humiliated or maybe even waking up still cringing with embarrassment you can change the course of the dream maybe you could snap your fingers and suddenly be wearing a tuxedo or maybe you turn into an animal or even fly away lucid dreaming is when you're aware that you're in a dream lucid dreaming ranges from a faint wreck mission that you're in a dream to fully controlling your actions people or objects in the dream or the dream itself at some point in their lives most people will have a lucid dream children tend to have them more easily and with greater frequency than adults researchers think this is because children have more active imaginations than adults sometimes taking certain medications triggers people to experience intense lucid dreams you can train yourself to have lucid dreams at first you may simply become aware that you're in a dream but over time you can learn to control your actions within your dreams advanced lucid dreamers may direct not only their actions but the narrative of the dream itself although not much is known about lucid dreaming or even dreaming in general researchers believe that lucid dreaming may be therapeutic while dreaming your subconscious mind is processing the events of the day while lucid dreaming you may experience emotions make decisions or practice conclusions that provide insight and may even help you to resolve situations in real life let's discuss how we sleep and explore some ways to begin lucid dreaming while after trying these techniques you may begin to have lucid dreams immediately for some people it can take weeks if not months before they begin to have lucid dreams a common problem is that the moment in the dream you become aware that you're in a dream you wake up it can take time to learn to continue to dream and broaden the internal awareness of when you're in a dream also it'll take time to learn to guide your actions or the direction of the dream so don't be discouraged if the dream life doesn't change right away a dream can be defined as a series of thoughts images ideas emotions and sensations that occur in your mind during various phases of sleep for millennia poets philosophers scientists and religious leaders have tried to make sense of dreams when you lay down and fall asleep at night your body goes through four stages of sleep stages 1 2 & 3 & REM stage 1 is the lightest stage of sleep you're drowsy transitioning between sleep and waking your muscles relax your brainwaves and eye movements slow this stage is brief often lasting less than 10 minutes you can easily be roused sometimes people experience muscle spasms and hypnic jerks a catnap generally takes place in this stage of sleep Stage two is still considered a light sleep although it's a deeper state than stage one for most people this comprises roughly 40 to 60 percent of total sleep time in this stage the brain experior sudden increases in brainwave frequency known as sleep spindles before slowing down a power nap generally falls into stage 2 stage 3 is considered restorative sleep this is where the body gathers energy for the next day makes repairs to flesh stimulates growth development and boosts immune function it makes up 5 to 15% of a night's sleep children and teens spend much longer in restorative sleep than adults do during stage 3 muscles are completely relaxed and there's no eye movement your body is less reactive to external stimuli and you're harder to wake the fourth and final stage of sleep is REM which stands for rapid eye movement REM can occur at any time during the sleep cycle although the onset of the first REM period for most people begins about 90 minutes after going to sleep during REM your brain becomes more active and the majority of Dreams occur your brain processes and synthesizes information from the past day so that it can be stored in your long-term memory for most lucid dreaming happens during REM although some advanced lucid dreamers claim to experience lucid dreams at any stage of sleep the first REM face tends to be short only a few minutes after REM the body starts the sleep cycle again with intervals of wakefulness mixed with sleep stages one two and three before returning to REM for longer periods of time as sleep continues most people go through four to five sleep cycles a night with the first one lasting about 90 minutes and subsequent cycles blasting on average between 100 and 120 minutes dreams can be any length from a few seconds to upwards of 20 minutes the average person has 3 to 5 dreams per night the first step toward lucid dreaming is to make sure that you're creating an environment that's conducive to good sleep that means keeping your bedroom at a temperature comfortable to you and making sure that it's peaceful dark and quiet you may consider using blackout curtains or an eye mask to block ambient light some people find earplugs white noise machines or soft instrumental background music handy also you may want to consider listening to music or sound scapes with binaural beats binaural beats use to lower tones significantly different sound frequencies generally one in each year to create the perception of a single new frequency tone your brain Tunes to this new combined frequency and it affects the brain's degree of arousal research indicates that binaural beats slow brainwave activity and may alter your moods helping you to relax lower your anxiety and make it easier for you to sleep soundly some binaural beats may actually induce lucid dreaming practice good sleep hygiene by not only going to bed each night at the same time but making sure that you get at least seven hours of sleep having a consistent and calming routine that winds you down before bed is important to limit vigorous exercise alcohol and sugary snacks to at least 60 minutes before bed there's some conflict within the scientific community as to whether we should also unplug from electronics at least 60 minutes before sleep recently a large study has shown that using electronics before bedtime doesn't affect the level of melatonin the hormone that regulates sleep in your body however others believe that electronics still stimulate the brain too much at a time when you're supposed to be settling down so use your best judgment and probably stay away from websites that discuss politics before going to bed also you might want to practice aromatherapy light stretching breathing exercises meditate or pray before going to sleep a good way to encourage lucid dreaming is to write in a dream journal keep your journal and a pen near your bed so it's easily accessible in the middle of the night in the morning or anytime you awake take a minute or two to concentrate on the memory and then immediately write down your dream it's fine if you don't remember the full dream write what you remember include visual details locations characters emotions smells colors and sounds add how you felt upon waking and also how you feel remembering the dream if you aren't much for writing you can narrate and record your dreams however some researchers thinks that there's a meditative quality in putting pen to paper and aspects of the brains recall functions are best served through writing the more you write down or record your dream memories the more you'll be able to recall your dreams what's the use of having a lucid dream if you forget it upon waking up helpful to dreaming lucid dreaming and writing in a dream journal is to go to bed with deliberate intentions some people refer to this as mild or mnemonic induction to lucid dreaming every night as you close your eyes and drift off to sleep repeat the same phrase to yourself that phrase should state your desired aim such as I will know when I'm dreaming and I will remember my dreams you may even want to visualize a place where you'd like to go in your dream by maintaining a dream journal your capacity to remember your dreams will grow regularly read through or listen to your dream journal looking for themes symbols or patterns do certain people or animals show up in your dreams over and over being aware of the recurring details of your dreams will help you to recognize when you're dreaming frequently occurring dream details may also offer insight into what issues your inner psyche is concerned with or focused on another important technique to encourage lucid dreaming is doing reality checks a reality check is a simple test where the result is different in waking life versus when you're dreaming an example of a reality check would be to take the index finger of one hand and try to push it through the palm of your other hand while asking yourself if you're dreaming in waking life of course your finger is met with resistance and cannot go through your palm however in a dream your finger will easily pass through your other hand another common reality check is to inspect your hand and count the digits on it while moving them and asking yourself if this is a dream in dreams you'll find that your hands and feet are distorted sometimes with extra fingers or toes choose a few reality checks and perform them a couple times during the day after a while the reality checks will become habits and you'll carry the habits over into your dreams the impossible outcome of the reality checks happening can clue you to realize that you're in a dream it becomes easier to induce a state of consciousness and dreams when you're self aware in general often we spend most of our days on autopilot we previously mentioned meditation in regards to creating a peaceful bedtime routine however you may want to consider a regular meditation practice where you pause a few times a day and meditate there are several websites and podcasts that offer guided meditations and music designed to help you on your journey you can also try to induce a lucid dream by deliberately disrupting your sleep the wake back to bed method is another technique to trigger lucid dreaming before you go to sleep set your alarm clock for six hours if you're a person who only gets six hours of sleep set your alarm clock to four hours the goal after trial and error is to determine the most accurate time when you personally are in long REM cycles of sleep when your alarm goes off and you wake up make yourself fully alert if you remember a dream upon waking quickly jot it down get out of bed you may wish to read wash your face or drink water to ensure that you're fully awake occupy yourself for 30 to 60 minutes before going back to bed if your brain is still very alert to practice meditation listen to binaural music or perform mild mnemonic induction to lucid screaming if you are previously dreaming before you woke up think about the dream as you drift back off if you weren't dreaming visualize where you'd like to go in a dream the wake back to bed method promotes lucid dreaming because you're purposefully stimulating your conscious brain at a time you'd normally be experiencing REM phase of sleep this spills over to consciousness and dreams when you do return to sleep often you'll go straight into REM sleep from a conscious state which also includes dreaming generally the wake back the bed approach works best if practiced a few times a week so if you'd like to experience your own personal version of Inception we suggest trying aforementioned techniques we would like to emphasize that everyone is different and some methods will work for some and not for others consistency is the key to regularly having lucid dreams also this is just an introduction there are many more advanced tactics to lucid dreaming we're back at it again subjecting one of our staff writers to your most pressing questions and this time it's one that's been asked hundreds of times what happens when you don't sleep for a week during our preliminary research we discover that the effects of complete sleep deprivation can be pretty severe so instead of complete no sleep we're letting our writer in guinea pig get three hours of sleep every day well below the recommended eight hours of sleep a night every person should get ever wonder what lack of sleep does to the body according to the American Psychological Association only 20% of adults get a good quality sleep each night yet in 1942 only 8% of people reported getting only six hours or fewer of sleep a night but in 2017 almost 50% of Americans are getting less than eight hours of sleep clearly we have a serious problem in our society but how badly is it affecting us day 1 10:00 a.m. today I start the no sleep one week challenge or if little sleep I suppose since no sleep can be pretty dangerous even outright fatal during my preparation for the challenge I read about American and Soviet sleep deprivation interrogation techniques where CIA and Soviet gulag prisoners would be sleep deprived for days on end in order to break down a tough prisoner's mental defenses and extract critical information apparently the brain can be so badly affected however that information can be unreliable or just completely made up which kind of begs the question of just how effective these techniques really are I guess I'll find out in order to test the effectiveness of CIA Soviets sleep deprivation interrogation techniques I've struck a deal with my girlfriend I will hide her laptop somewhere and she has until today seven to extract the location from me without the laptop she won't be able to watch Netflix or mess with her Pinterest and she hates doing work emails from her phone because the screen is so small so she has a huge incentive to try to get me to break I guess we'll see if she can 10:00 p.m. last night I had a full night's sleep so I'm not feeling too rough it's about 10 p.m. now and I'm tired but I've definitely done longer stints without sleep during my years in the military working on my laptop and girlfriend asked if she could borrow it but I told her that that would violate the terms of our challenge she rolled her eyes and started watching Netflix on her phone I'm not noticing any side effects so far but it's going to be a tough to stay awake when nobody else is up I downloaded a few ps1 games to play through the nights and keep me busy though day to 10:00 a.m. slept my three hours then I woke up with girlfriend was getting ready for work waking up was pretty tough but again nothing I haven't experienced before I'm not really hungry though in habit easier and I remember this is a symptom of not sleeping for my time in the military we used to take adderall to power through days and days of little sleep it's basically a nymphet amina Joel church system awake by giving you ton of energy but the side effects are pretty terrible this time there's no adderall for cheat wit but from what I've read the symptoms of no sleep may be just as bad yes we'll see 10 p.m. I wasn't that tired last night but this time I'm freely tired I brought in a patio chair to sit on because I'm afraid that if I sit on the couch or lay in bed for too long a fall asleep in the military it was easier not to sleep if you were active and had something to do but with nothing really to do it's a lot harder I took dog for a million walks today and will probably take him on at least two more tonight just to be back tit girlfriend asked me where the laptop was didn't tell her not writing here either just in case she steals my laptop when I'm not looking I think watching YouTube and Netflix on her phone is getting to her more than my lack of sleep is getting to me research I've read up on says that one of the first effects of sleep deprivation is the inability to show positive emotion on the face even happy people can't show it on their face with a smile ask my girlfriend if she felt that I was being this way and she said I laughed less and don't smile as much but I just seemed normal just really tired research also said I'd creep junk food as the body looks for sources of energy to keep itself going that's definitely true I drank one of those huge 16-ounce cokes a little bit and we'll probably drink another later tonight to help me stay up sorry washboard abs you're gonna have to wait at least one more week day 3:10 a.m. I woke up after three hours and it literally felt like I just got asleep a moment ago I can't describe how tired I am not hungry at all going to try to keep busy today working on other scripts to pass the time 10:00 p.m. definitely an advantage to have something to keep you physically active and alert like in the military as opposed to just doing nothing try to keep occupied with video games but the action is getting harder to track try to work on scripts to pass the time but just too hard to concentrate then zoning out a lot missed an entire conversation after girlfriend came home from work research says this is the brain trying to force rest period even with your eyes open you literally just check out mentally it's called micro sleeps and is supposed to happen less than 30 seconds no pretty sure i micro slept for a full five-minute conversation girlfriend grilled me about her laptop didn't tell her she'll never break me day for 10 a.m. I feel like I haven't eaten in a long time but I'm hungry girlfriend brought me a bunch of nutrition bars yesterday because I haven't been eating much regular food she left it all over the house so there's always one in reach sometimes I eat one and then forget I just ate one and then reach for one only to find the empty wrapper and I realized I just ate one I think that last sentence makes sense getting harder to concentrate but trying hard girlfriend had to shake me awake when the alarm rang after three hours she said she's concerned and thinks oh this is stupid and she's not gonna wake me up again so I have to set three alarms just to make sure I wake up 10 p.m. I feel physically ill like nauseous all the time I walked the dog earlier and zoned out for I don't know how long guess I'm micro slept in the middle of the sidewalk definitely not smiling or laughing much also making a lot of spelling errors in this document hard to concentrate research says lack of sleep increases stress hormones because the brain can't rest it balance out your hormone levels I definitely feel stressed girlfriend asked if I was ready to tell her where her laptop was didn't tell her she said my job is dumb and I'm dumb and that she doesn't really need her stupid laptop anyways and went to sleep day 5 10 a.m. back in military days when we used to go with little sleep for days there was a point you hit where weren't really tired anymore even though your body was exhausted like your brain tricking your body I feel like that a lot now research says that your brain dumbs down when you don't sleep I have to agree to test myself I tried to do a math quiz online and did horrible I don't even feel like trying to write today 10:00 p.m. girlfriend asked for a laptop a bunch didn't tell her she said no sex then joke's on her research says you lose your sex drive without sleep because your hormones are out of balance and lack energy it's a Mexican standoff but she's got no bullets in her gun I win day six 10:00 a.m. today is Saturday foot I forgot I only realized because girlfriend didn't go to work today days sometimes blur together because I don't have the regular nine-to-five job but definitely affected by lack of sleep typically go somewhere on Saturdays but no energy to do anything really trying hard not asleep played all the Final Fantasy 7 this week to keep busy great game but guess what six is better you could suck at internet but 7 is inferior to 6 10 p.m. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep a few times today but don't remember girlfriend insists I didn't so either memory is completely falling apart or I slept with my eyes open research says that severe lack of sleep disrupts the brain's ability to form memories properly coupled with poor nutrition this can cause serious memory problems and definitely have not been eating right too much junk food but I guess like research said just the body trying to energize really hard to type these entries keep making a lot of mistakes and having to rewrite plus sentences that don't make sense I had to start sending alarms every 30 minutes on my phone to make sure I didn't fall asleep accidentally girlfriend also tried to get the location of laptop from me driving her nuts to not have it specifically since it's the weekend she warned me that experiment ends in one day but lack of sex could last much longer if I didn't tell her not even the CIA is as evil as she is they should put her in charge of interrogating terrorists day 7 1:00 p.m. I don't know when I fell asleep last night but I woke up 10 minutes ago definitely overslept the three-hour length when I woke up girlfriend was on her laptop and when I asked her how she found it she just kept smiling and saying she got me I honestly don't remember telling her but no way she found it on her own I'm not convinced she didn't borrow a laptop that just looks like hers so I would do my entry in right here where a hitter real laptop after I fall back asleep research says that's paranoia of rest rewires the brain and makes the irrational seem rational screwed up with a sleep but going to try to stay up anyway 10:00 p.m. I feel like I could stay at more but I'm not going to all day have been spacing out really hard to concentrate on writing entries but not as a rational or hard as I found it would be at the start keep reading and rereading sentences and hoping they make sense though been seeing things the last two days like shadows moving in the corner of my eye research says extreme lack of sleep leads to hallucinations and I agree who will be sitting by myself and suddenly think I saw a figure moving at the edge of my vision these also have been given out on me and almost fell twice today from absolute exhaustion I think I may be accidentally told girl from where the laptop was but forgot that I did that research says that it can happen with prisoners they give up info and have no memory of it or they make up false info because their brains are scrambled but maybe she just borrowed the laptop still trying to make me think I gave up the location so I'll just say or write down where the real one is she did show me pictures on it though and her login that's pretty convincing but I thought what if she just downloaded the pics and set it all up that's definitely paranoia so I think I'm going to officially call it here dear Internet a week without sleep makes you grumpy paranoid makes me want junk food but not normal food kills your sex drive makes you fall asleep with your eyes open and annoys your girlfriend so don't do it have you ever suffered from insomnia twisting and turning between the sheets until you see the light peeking through the curtains and you think damn today is not going to be easy for most people who go without sleep for just one night the next day everything seems a bit out of whack imagine that lasted another day and another day that's what we're going to discuss in this episode of the infographic show what if you never fell asleep again don't forget to subscribe and click the bell bone so that you can be part of a notification squad let's start with day one of no sleep what exactly happens to you according to one study that tested volunteers brain patterns after a sleepless night the deprivation led to what is called fractional anisotropy in layman's terms this means sleeplessness affects neural functions and in the short-term can affect your emotions as well as your ability to think straight one sleep expert dr. Fred Mercola says going without just one night's sleep can affect the brain the same way alcohol does by creating mental confusion he also says that going just 24 hours without sleep can result in hallucinations paranoia and even sleep deprivation psychosis the Journal of Neuroscience says this can feel like suffering from schizophrenia for some people while others deal with a 24-hour wake binge much better if one night can be that bad what about two nights most scientists that study sleep deprivation say you lose 25% of brain performance for every 24 hours you don't sleep if after 24 hours you feel muddled and a little off-kilter a report by the US National Institute of Health says that after 39 hours your heart rate and blood pressure will be affected at this point you may have all the symptoms above but according to research there is a good chance you'll have trouble remembering some people's faces after 48 hours the body's immune system starts to falter due to a decrease in your body's natural killer cells aka and K cells these are the cells that fight off disease the study abstract concludes not surprisingly that sleep restriction produces physiological consequences that may be unhealthy nitrogen was also found in the urine of the test patients which also usually means your body is undergoing some kind of stress it's also proven that your hormones will be affected so there's a chance you might get all emotional or just fly off the handle your hearing as well as hand-eye coordination will be affected and so will your ability to judge situations according to the International Journal of occupational medicine and environmental health don't drive a car at this point or start doing some metal work you may just start using a kind of autopilot - meaning you get from A to B and dorm what happened in between as for the mind on one particular web forum a high school student says he went to school after 48 hours of no sleep and ended up sitting down on a bench and chatting with another boy when he noticed the concerned teacher looking at him he then realized there was no boy there he had been hallucinating in an article by everyday health it states at 48 hours you will also start having microsleeps these can last between half a second to half a minute and you won't even know you've had them other research says that you are not actually hallucinating but dreaming during wakefulness this is something that has been called sleep insanity at 72 hours things get really weird when interviewed one soldier who experienced days without sleep said even just talking to someone can be really hard he also said he'd see things in the trees such as people approaching his camp it's interesting to note here that during Navy SEAL training there is something called hell week wherein trainees have to stay awake for as long as they can and actually do things according to the Navy SEALs website only 25% of people get through hell week but it does seem making catch at least a couple of Z's now and again unless under lab conditions are being tortured we will all have these micro sleeps or blackouts as for torture the Senate committees 2014 report on the CIA's use of sleep deprivation after 9/11 found that depriving people of sleep made them say just about anything including false confessions the report said some detainees were sleep deprived for as long as 180 hours which resulted in them being put under tremendous physical and emotional stress as well as experiencing disturbing hallucinations Amnesty International calls it cruel and inhumane not only for what happened psychologically but also the stress that is put on the body the record for not sleeping without the use of stimulants is held by Randy Gardner and he managed 11 days 25 minutes in 1964 he suffered from concentration problems short-term memory loss paranoia and hallucinations claims have been made for longer sleeps but none have been scientifically verified if you are unfortunate enough to suffer from the disease fatal familial insomnia you will not sleep and as the name suggests you will die within months but not before you go crazy no one has ever just stayed awake as it is thought to be simply impossible you will just start having microsleeps we don't know what would happen to someone who never sleeps again because the body thank goodness just won't let that happen in today's episode of the infographics show we're slipping off into the land of dreams it seems most people have their own ways to nod off and these vary from taking a hot bath - sniffing lavender today we look at some of the more popular sleep inducing tricks for today's show though we're not promoting pharmaceuticals that have a clinically proven track record of sending us to sleep in seconds instead we're taking a look at some natural solutions for insomnia and seeing if they really do work so what natural methods work best for sleeping what's the fastest way to fall asleep let's take a look at how to fall asleep quicker one of the most common causes of sleeplessness is anxiety if you're worried about something then you will have a difficult time regulating emotions and your body will not be in a conditioned predisposed to sleep what's happening in the mind is key to allowing that sleep hormone melatonin to work it's beautiful magic melatonin is produced by the pineal gland and naturally regulates sleep and it's this hormone that allows us to have a good night's rest first up let's look at the things you shouldn't be doing if you're trying to fall asleep while it may seem tempting to have an alcoholic nightcap and a drink or two might send us off to sleep quicker the sleep is of lesser quality alcohol affects heart rhythm and disrupts all sleep stages plus drinking makes us need to pee and getting up in the night to use the bathroom puts us right back out of the sleep cycle also try to avoid sleeping tablets as they can become addictive and often lead the user to suffer from the very problems anxiety and stress that they're prescribed to cure you should go to bed at a regular hour and rise at the same time each day true you won't feel tired every time you go to bed but on our bodies crave structure to only go to bed when absolutely exhausted confuses our sleep patterns and promotes insomnia melatonin supplements should be avoided because over the course of time our bodies will stop producing any hormone that is artificially introduced and sleeplessness will probably become a larger concern counting sheep doesn't seem to work either small studies including one by Oxford University on sheep counting and similar techniques have been conducted with test groups of only 10 to 20 but with numbers this little it's impossible to draw a solid conclusion one theory is that sheep counting only increases anxiety as the mind becomes aware of the concept of time and being aware of time is one of the biggest enemies to the act of nodding off in battling insomnia sometimes reverse psychology might work by forcing yourself stay awake you may alleviate sleep anxiety research conducted at the University of Glasgow found that insomniacs who were instructed to stay awake with their eyes wide open eventually fell asleep faster than the other participants in the experiment who were not instructed with this paradoxical intention further research needs to be undertaken in the reverse psychology field of sleep suggestion though Richard Wiseman professor for public understanding at the University of Hertfordshire and author of the book night school suggests that people suffering from sleeplessness should get up and do an activity that requires basic motor skills such as a jigsaw or crossword puzzle they should avoid watching television and digital screens in bed as the blue lights have been proven to suppress the sleep inducing hormone melatonin also screens in the bed caused the brain to associate the bed to being an awake environment rather than one for sleep the key is to avoid associating your bed with a place to be awake clock should be hidden as watching or perhaps worse listening to the minutes tick tock toward morning induces your sleep related anxiety your bedroom should be cool and dark and quiet you might consider taking a warm shower or bath before bed and then stepping into the cooler bedroom studies have shown that the rapid decrease in body temperature slows your metabolism faster and prepares the body for sleep a Swiss study has shown that wearing socks may help and falling asleep faster shifting blood flow from the core of your body to your extremities cools down the body and helped along that sleep hormone melatonin it also has been proven that splashing or immersing your face in cold water may help relax your nervous system and triggers the dive reflex that lowers heart rate and blood pressure aromatherapy may also prove helpful but evidence is mixed with some scientific bodies officially labeling the practice as a pseudoscience however lavender has long been associated with sleep in 2005 researchers at the Wesleyan University discovered that subjects who were exposed to lavender for two minutes before sleeping experienced deeper sleep and felt more vigorous in the morning as mentioned it's not just the space around your physical body that's important picturing an ideal environment in your mind may be the key to helping sleep an Oxford University study named behavior research in therapy with a tiny test pool of 17 Jax found that insomniacs who imagined a beach or a waterfall fell asleep 20 minutes faster than those who simply counted sheep this study is too small for our infographics researchers to deem significant but we thought we'd mention it anyway the National Sleep Foundation recommends something called progressive relaxation this technique requires you to tense and then relax each muscle beginning with your toes and working your way up to your neck and head visualize your skeleton and muscles and picture in your mind each part of your body relaxing so take a hot bath or shower make sure your room is cool dark and quiet and find your preferred sleeping position and visualize your ideal environment as you tense and relax your body and who knows once sleep arrives you may find yourself visiting that ideal environment in your dream state now that you're ready to fall asleep in under a minute it's time to try the four seven eight this popular natural method involves three simple steps that take four seven and eight seconds this sixty second technique supposedly works like this simply find yourself a comfortable position and breathe in through your nose for four seconds hold your breath for seven seconds and then exhale very slowly for eight or more seconds repeat this exercise until sleep takes you by the hand harvard-educated MD Andrew Weil swears by this method he took the method from a hundreds of years old yogi meditation practice and says it's the single best method that I've found for dealing with getting back to sleep if you wake up in the middle of the night slowing down the breathing rate forces the rhythm of your heart to slow down and in turn puts the body into a relaxed state but before getting too excited keep in mind that there isn't one research paper or any clinical studies to show that this method works the average person will sleep about eight hours a day so that's a third of your life catching Z's if you live to the average age in most developed nations that will mean you'll spend somewhere close to 10,000 days in bed asleep that's more time spent sleeping than you'll do any other activity and of course we're not counting breathing or thinking or seeing with this in mind you'll have to give great respect to this thing we all call sleep sleep is our great relief and countless studies tell us that if we don't get enough of it or get too much of it there will be negative consequences regarding our physical and mental health you best make sure you're sleeping right given how much of it you do and today will tell you how to sleep well before we get into the advice we'll tell you that research has shown that quite a lot of people do actually sleep in the wrong position you might feel like it's the best way to drift off but some positions can cause people harm some of the consequences of bad sleep positions might be you wake up with pains sometimes in the neck sometimes in the back shoulders or knees you might just feel stiff in the morning a little bit too rigid but there's more than that some people snore because they're in the wrong position and while we all let out a few nighttime grunts now and again snoring can become a problem not only for your health but for your sleeping partner's mental health your friends might balk at sharing a hotel room with you too and if you're especially loud you might annoy people in the same house but not even in the same room because you're sleeping all wrong you might wake up feeling really tired as if you haven't slept much at all while some people wake up with headaches and according to some experts this might be a pillow problem other problems related to bad sleeping positions can be waking up with heartburn or inflammation in certain parts of the body so without further ado let's see how to sleep well first of all you might not know if you're not sleeping right because you have some of the symptoms we mentioned you might just feel groggy every morning or your sleep tracker might be telling you that there is a problem not everyone is the same but we'll tell you how some positions can cause certain problems sleeping on your stomach can be a good thing and a bad thing one of the problems with this is the fact that with a high pillow sleeping on your stomach can cause a neck pain you're basically forcing your neck into a very difficult position every night and this is why you might with pain they're quite often the obvious solution to this if you're a habitual stomach sleeper is to get a lower pillow or totally get rid of your pillow yes some doctors say sleeping on your stomach is best done without a pillow you could at least give it a try but there's more sleeping this way can make it harder to breathe because it's not exactly the most comfortable breathing position eileen rosen an associate professor of clinical medicine for the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia said that there is a solution try not to sleep like a plank for one thing so bend the knee in the elbow after that to help more with position put a small pillow underneath that armpit and hip you can also take some pressure off your back by putting a pillow under your stomach try it play around with using pillows not just for your head but to support other parts of your body you might just find you get a much better night's sleep as for those head pillows well if you are a stomach sleeper or a back sleeper don't have them too high you only want enough height to keep your spine straight have you ever seen those images of Sleeping Beauty sleeping on her back with her head at a steep incline well Miss Beauty no doubt woke up with a terrible neck Crick you don't need to go too high so what about those folks that feel so comfortable sleeping in the fetal position oh don't we all miss those cozy days in the womb of our mothers it's actually the most popular position and it's a good fit for most people but there are problems too it can cause breathing problems which might lead to a bad night's sleep one thing you can try if you like to sleep in this position is putting a pillow under one of your legs and holding on to it as if you're hugging the pillow in fact in many places around Asia people sleep like this all the time except they hang on to something that looks a bit like a sausage sometimes they're called sausage pillows they're not only used for people who like to sleep in the fetal position but also to support other parts of the body by one stick it next to you and we guarantee you'll soon be clinging on to it as a form of support and comfort many of the experts tell us that the fetal position with some support can be the best way to sleep a lot of sleepers and it's well documented have lower back pain because of the way they sleep again one thing you can do to fix this is get some kind of support to prevent a lower back pain you might try sleeping with that support under your knees in between your thighs and a if you sleep on your stomach underneath you so what if you like sleeping on your stomach but not really in the fetal position the best thing about this is that it can reduce all that snoring you do it's also a lot better for digestion and heartburn than on your back one study we found though said if you want to reduce heartburn and acid reflux you should try and switch sides a lot at least when you're trying to get to sleep just about everyone anyway says don't eat a big meal and go to sleep especially a real fatty meal it's not great for your weight so try and give some space between eating and sleeping if you're a side sleeper there might be problems such as shoulder stiffness and even jaw tightness again another pillow under your body can help this side sleepers like fetal sleepers can really benefit from having something to hold on to not many people actually sleep on their back but it does have quite a few benefits including helping with knee pain and hip pain it's more of a laying in bed and thinking position than a sleeping position and many of us retreat to the stomach or side at some point the important thing here is to get the pillow height right since too low or too high will give you neck pain it's also the position that a lot of people do their snoring in if you are a serial snore then try to tell yourself to sleep on your side or in the fetal position there are other tricks too including sleeping with a tennis ball in the back pocket of whatever clothes you sleep in in the end there is no magic sleeping position to suit all but if you're experiencing bad sleep or pains you can just follow some of the advice we've given to you today as one doctor from John Hopkins Medicine said about positions we could argue that some are better than others but there are caveats she means what we just said if you snore too much don't go for the back and if you have pains try a different pillow or using support and if you have heartburn switch to your other side the left is better she said if you often wake up with your face looking rather mangled then try not to sleep on your stomach too much apparently this can cause wrinkles in the long run not much of this matters of course if you have a mattress that's been around longer than you if it's out of shape with a kind of dip in the middle it's going to give you problems it's hard to say which mattress is perfect for you because some sleepers suped hard mattress is more and some suit soft ones more if it's cheap and super soft so you virtually sink into it it will likely give you some back soft can be good but not too soft it's the same with super hard if the mattress doesn't allow any sinking at all it might lead to stiff shoulders and stiff hips in the morning you don't want to be sleeping on a virtual floor every night we turn off the lights close our eyes and drift into a new reality we all dream even if we can't always remember doing it but why this question is one that is a long been asked but not fully understood throughout any given night we dream about every 90 minutes and the length of our dream increases depending on how long we're asleep the first dream is the shortest sometimes around ten minutes after eight hours of sleep we can have dreams 45 minutes to an hour long that's almost like watching a free movie in your subconscious your own internal trip to the theater but don't return those movie tickets in the waking world just yet dreams can be obscure and often just plain bizarre some are even terrible and disturbing why do we have them and what do they mean because there are so many different types of dreams and ways to interpret them dream analysis can be extraordinarily complex so much so that many people actually take classes and obtain certificates in order to do it yes there is such a thing as getting a certificate in dream studies which qualifies you to help others figure out the meaning of their dreams don't believe us just type Institute for dream studies into Google search whether getting one is worth the expense is entirely up to you we all probably know if these common familiar dreams you know the ones where you feel like you're falling and wake up in a mad panic lose your teeth or embarrassingly find that you are completely undressed in front of a crowded room while giving a public speech not all dreams are negative and some even give us joy and inspiration why we have them is a mystery but there are many theories and ideas that discuss possible answers many people seem to believe that dreams are just random and do not actually mean anything while others insist upon their significance Sigmund Freud the father of psychoanalysis believed in the meaning of dream interpretation and was famous for it he explained that behavior stemmed from unconscious thoughts and that dreams are a way of expressing those secret primal desires his concept of sexuality however has been criticized for being so vague that it can apply to pretty much anything have you ever dreamed about eating a hot dog well Freud would probably interpret that as being a phallic symbol whether you want to believe in this or not there is no 100% way of knowing for certain one major criticism over Freud's theory of dream analysis is that it just can't be supported by a research it's simply not something that can be easily measured or examined in a lab some also argue that a lot of Freud's ideas may be a little outdated by today's standards mainly because of the strong influence of sexuality as well as the Oedipus Electra complex consistently used throughout his interpretations Carl Jung is another figure who insisted on the use of dream interpretation like Freud he believed that dreams are a direct expression of the unconscious he considered dreams to be a tool used to restore or maintain mental health he admitted however that dream interpretation was not something scientific but more so emotional or feeling he based he was a humanistic psychologist so he believed that humans are natural meaning makers and everyone is an expert on him or herself he believed that his role was not to give answers but to simply provide a gentle guiding hand through the analysis process allowing people to decipher their dreams for themselves Freud thought Jung was influenced by the sway of mysticism for his lack of scientific approach a Jungian therapist might argue that human cognition is not always driven by logic so why approach it that way so let's examine for a moment an example of how a Jungian therapist might approach an interpretation of a bad dream let's say you go to a Jungian therapist and explain that you had a nightmare that something really bad happened to a loved one your mother for instance you don't know why you had such a dream and you feel guilty wondering if your subconscious secretly hates your mom you love her in the waking world so you don't understand how you could have possibly dreamed this a Jungian therapist would assure and calm you explaining that you may have had the bad dream precisely because you love your mother confused allow us to explain if you're someone who loves and adores your mother but you have a dream about her swimming in an alligator infested water this does not mean you want to see your sufferer quite the contrary actually because you care for her your subconscious may simply be trying to mentally prepare you for any worst-case scenario in the event that something really bad does happen to her your mind may also be prepping you so that you may defies a plan to prevent such a situation from occurring in real life when you love someone your feelings are strong and so maybe your dreams about them this includes both positive and negative dreams in this way your awful dream may have been manifested to help you though most of the time we view nightmares and bad dreams as more of a hindrance than a tool evolutionary psychological theories speculate dreams to be exactly this a mental device used to prepare us for the worst so that we may cope with threats effectively in the waking world think of it this way our evolutionary ancestors had to constantly defend themselves from predators around every bend thus having a nightmare about being hunted by a tiger would have been advantageous for early humans for devising a plan of action this way when they encountered a tiger in the waking world they'd be more prepared for the situation and by past the same fate experienced in the nightmare in today's modern world we're more likely to have nightmares that are more relevant to our daily lives rather than dreaming about being attacked by a tiger for instance we're more inclined to have dreams about being late for our first day at a new job failing a final exam or giving an important speech in our pajamas these types of dreams are thought to be designed to simulate what could go wrong so that we could avoid having them happen to us though in all honesty we probably don't need nightmares to tell us not to do certain things like give a speech in our pajamas that's pretty much common sense but because we've spent the majority of human existence as primal hunter-gatherers fending for our lives our minds may not have fully caught up with our modern way of living and our comforts and conveniences for this reason we may continue to have nightmares because our basic instincts don't yet understand that our modern stressors are not life-threatening thus we perceive threats like being late for work as something that provokes the same fight-or-flight response within us as being chased by a tiger moving on to another type of dream experience if you constantly have dreams where you're not directly involved in the story this can imply that you see yourself as an observer of life we mean when your dreams play out like a movie where you're watching someone else or a group of strangers facing a situation in this case pay attention to the characters because they could be representative of people you know or they could be various aspects of yourself interacting with one another in a story when you wake up be sure to write down what you remember before you forget it then revisit what you've written to see if you can connect the dots and find in the material who knows you may be surprised by what you uncover and what you wind up learning about your internal thoughts and desires when it comes to the subject of nightmares a 2014 study conducted by the University of Montreal show that there tend to be common themes despite everyone having their own unique dream worlds an analysis of 253 nightmares and 431 bad dreams found an overall high prevalence of physical aggression along with death health and threats men's nightmares seemed to center more around natural disasters and war while women showed higher rates of interpersonal conflicts in their dreams including emotional threats within the realm of dreams and nightmares we should also mention that our knowledge is based on more speculation than fact there's no consensus as to what directly causes nightmares since dreams can be a challenge for neurobiologists and psychologists to study what we do know is that there appears to be a connection between our dreams and our daytime lives including our relationships with others traumatic events we've experienced and more so how can we minimize the presence of nightmares there are a few potential ways to go about doing this first practice good sleep hygiene ideally keep your room cool dark and quiet it's a temperature of 60 to 70 degrees is thought to be best you've probably also heard that you should turn off all screens from the television to cell phones since these can disturb your sleep second talk about your nightmare or write it out on paper chances are once you externalize the nightmare from your mind and examine it from an outside perspective you may realize just how funny or silly your nightmare was and no longer be afraid of it 3 deal with any daytime stressors that may be bothering you and influencing your dreams if for example your next-door neighbor has been mowing his lawn in Cleveland Brown boxers and you're a Steelers fan perhaps this has been recurrently disturbing you and your dreams at night not only are you repulsed by the image of your half-naked neighbor being out in his boxer shorts but you're also put off by the apparel that's representative of your rival team deal with this in the waking world by politely asking him to slip on some pants whenever he steps outside his house from now on be sensitive about your approach though so as to not embarrass the poor guy who didn't realize he was making you uncomfortable with his ugly dad bod and love for the wrong sports team there's no reason to be hostile forth and this might just be the most fun suggestion on this play video games that's right playing video games it's not to make dreams less threatening because it instills in you the process of fighting and winning which can carry over a feeling of control into the dream world in this way you'll be less passive in your dreams and more ready to take action with a sword in hand perhaps your initial nightmare about being in a zombie robot apocalypse will turn into a fun adventure as you save the world from those cyber corpses and become a hero beloved by all if none of those suggestions work for you and you're someone who has serious issues with consistent nightmares you may need to seek help you could have severe anxiety or something called nightmare disorder which is a real clinically recognized sleep problem this disorder can also be a symptom of PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder so you should be checked out by a doctor or seek counseling just in case we may not remember our dreams but every one is thought to dream between three and six times per night with each dream lasting between five and twenty minutes these stories and images that our minds create as we sleep can be entertaining romantic disturbing frightening and sometimes downright bizarre there has been a lot of research looking into dreaming so we can understand what's going on in the depths of our subconscious while the lights are out what are the factors that influenced our dreams and do we have anything to do with them these are some of the topics we'll be exploring today in this episode of the infographic show how can you control your dreams around 95% of dreams are forgotten by the time you get out of bed yet dreaming can help you learn and develop long term memories and blind people dream more than people with sight - so how much control do we have over the Dreaming process before we answer this question let's first take a look at why dreams happen in the first place no one knows for sure why we treat but there are several theories which include dreams representing unconscious desires and wishes dreams interpreting random signals from the brain and body during sleep and dreams consolidating and processing information gathered during the day whatever the reasons dreaming is a vital part of maintaining a healthy mind and in one study when researchers woke subjects just as they were drifting into a dream state they found negative effects of not dreaming that included increased tension anxiety depression difficulty concentrating lack of coordination weight gain and even hallucinations so whether good bed or crazy dreams they are all important we often wake up from a dream remember it instantly and then it's gone but when do dreams actually happen what is it really happening in our mind just before we woke up there are actually five sleep cycle phases Stage one is known as light sleep where your eye movement slows down and muscle activity is reduced at stage two the eye movement stops altogether and brainwaves become slower with occasional bursts of rapid waves called sleep spindles this stage forms as much as half of your total sleep at stage 3 the brain waves are extremely slow and what our No as delta waves start to appear at stage four the brain produces pretty much only delta waves this stage is what we know as deep sleep there is no eye movement or muscle activity if you wake someone who is at this stage they may feel disoriented until their consciousness is back on line and stage 5 is known as rapid eye movement or REM breathing is faster irregular and shallow and the eyes jerk rapidly in various directions heart rate increases and blood pressure rises this stage accounts for about 20% of all sleep time and when people start to wake during REM they often remember their dreams so can you control this REM state and more importantly the bizarre mind activity that comes with it the simple answer is yes and it's known as lucid dreaming it's the ability to know you're dreaming while you're dreaming a lucid dreamer is able to get to sleep at night and wake up within a dream once lucid they can even explore and even change elements of the dream most of us have had this happen a little but usually by accident and only for a few seconds but when a person purposefully enters a state of lucid dreaming they have more control and recent research at the University of Adelaide in Australia has found that a specific combination of techniques can increase a person's chances of having lucid dreams a study conducted by psychology professor dr. Denholm SP involved three groups of participants and investigated the effectiveness of three different lucid dream induction techniques number one reality testing this involves checking your environment a number of times each day to see whether or not you're dreaming number two wake back to bed for this you are woken after five hours and remain awake for a short period before going back to sleep so you can enter a REM stage where dreams are more likely to occur number three & Mild which stands for mnemonic induction of lucid dreams this also involves being woken after five hours of sleep but developing the intention to remember that you are dreaming before returning to sleep by repeating the phrase the next time I'm dreaming I will remember that I'm dreaming there were 47 people involved in the study and they achieved a 17 percent success rate with controlled lucid dreams among those who are able to go to sleep within the first five minutes of completing the mile technique the success rate of lucid dreaming was much higher at all 46% of attempts the results could have been more impressive explained as be saying reality testing is practiced throughout the day and even though you're forming that intention when you go to sleep there's still a gap between when you last do a reality test okay so that's a controlled environment but surely there are some simpler ways to have an influence over our dreams The Huffington Post had some suggestions in an article on lucid dreaming these included keeping a dream journal so you can start to identify the patterns of your dreams for example you might have a frequent dream about your pet the ocean schools or even snakes once you identify those personal dream signs they will become landmarks when you enter a dream state which will give you more of an opportunity to become lucid and in control also try asking yourself the question am I dreaming throughout your day by repeating the mantra you will begin to ask the same question while in a dream and again you'll be more likely to take control while dreaming have you ever awoken from a dream with the feeling of being paralyzed maybe you found yourself in a different room than the one you fell asleep in it's the middle of the night and you have no idea how you got there while being scary enough these phenomena are perfectly natural and happened to millions of people every night in fact there's a whole catalogue of weird and wonderful things that take place while you're fast asleep and circling through dream states beneath your comforter but what's happening to your mind and body while catching some Z's and should we be concerned today we'll take a closer look at the neural and biological occurrences taking place while the lights are out in this episode of the infographics show things that happen when you're asleep lie down turn off the lights and let nature do the rest depending on the day you pad you may fall asleep straight away or it may take a little while when you first drift off the sleep is light non-rapid eye movement sleep and progresses deeper and deeper into n REM 2 before moving on to the deepest n REM 3 before finally moving into REM sleep the rapid eye movement part of sleep is where most of the dreams occur the brain then moves back through the cycle in the same order four or five times during an ordinary night's sleep as the night progresses you spend more time in the REM zones and this explains why you often wake up during a tree ever woke up feeling paralyzed well during REM sleep only the muscles that move our eyes are active dream paralysis has been experienced by us humans for years and before we studied dreams as a science we thought supernatural phenomena was at play this event was often called the hag as our ancestors believed a witch like woman sat atop our chests restricting our movements sleep paralysis instead is a temporary state occurring in transition between REM sleep and wakefulness often the sufferer of this disturbing condition can make no major body movements or speak but they can open their eyes so that they are aware of their surroundings owing to the advent of REM dream sleep often this event is accompanied by hallucinations and can be terrifying during our nightly escapades to the Land of Nod our brains clear out the trash of 2013 study of mice showed that waste removal processes are most during sleep also new memories are being paved and stored from the day basically the important information is stored away while the non important stuff is put into the brains version of a computer's recycle bin both your heart rate and your breathing will slow down during sleep the intestines relax and the liver slowly rebuilds itself there's less adrenaline flowing through the system unless you're experiencing a nightmare or a particularly pleasant dream blood pressure will plummet and the body temperature will drop growth hormones are also pumped out during an REM sleep enabling us to continue rebuilding and growing some people even go for a walk during sleep sleepwalking also known as some Namba lism is a behavior that includes walking and sometimes performing complex tasks while asleep it is more common in children than adults a person may walk around the house and some have even been known to undertake long drives in the car while sleeping it's a common misconception that sleepwalkers should not be woken up this is not true if you see somebody asleep about to drive their car wake them up another common sleeping disorder is what we often refer to as night terrors also known as sleep terror this strange event takes place during the first hours of non-rapid I slow wave sleep during these episodes of night terrors people usually bulk upright with their eyes wide open and a look of fear and panic on their faces they will often scream and sometimes violently lash out at their bedfellow in November 2009 Britain's Guardian newspaper reported that a devoted husband and father of two Brian Thomas had strangled his wife to death after he dreamt that she was an intruder members of the jury at Swansea are crowned court were ordered to formally acquit Thomas who had suffered from night terrors for about 50 years a lucid dream is a dream event where the dreamer is aware of dreaming and can exert some control of the characters setting narrative and general mood of the dream perhaps the most well-known scientist of all time Albert Einstein discovered his theory of relativity in a lucid dream Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein came to her in a dream as did Robert Stevenson's dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde Beethoven was a prolific dreamer who used nighttime inspiration to create both the Rolling Stones and the Beatles use dreams to write their songs satisfaction and yesterday respectively dreams are essential for our survival although we can survive for periods without sleeping eventually the human mind needs to enter the REM State Randy Gardner is the holder of the scientifically documented record for the longest time a human being has gone without sleep Gardner a high school student from California managed 264 hours or 11 days and 25 minutes towards the end of the challenge Gardner suffered from lack of concentration paranoia hallucinations and was unable to perform simple arithmetic what crazy things happen to you while you're sleeping let us know in the comments also be sure to watch your other video called the Barnum effect why do people believe in horoscopes thanks for watching and as always don't forget to Like share and subscribe see you next time

Channel: The Infographics Show

Views: 1,638,676

Rating: 4.799746 out of 5

Keywords: Sleep, dream, dreams, lucid dreams, infographics, infographics show, asleep, how to control dreams, how to lucid dream, facts, facts about sleep, sleep analysis, sleep disorder, sleep deprived, fun, funny, funny videos, challenge, comedy, video, entertainment, humor, how to, experiments, hacks, life hacks, crazy, amazing, do it yourself, life, 2019, bad dream, bad dreams, nightmare, psychology, what do you dream, awake, don't sleep, compilation

Id: -zJqKtEbR4M

Length: 67min 13sec (4033 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 10 2019