« Why do we dream? | Home | Dreaming Interpretation Example »
Searching for Sleep and an Insomnia Cure
By Free Psychology Articles | December 1, 2007
Although there are many different sleep problems, insomnia is by far the most common. Insomnia is characterised by problems in falling asleep, waking during the night or early in the morning. Most of us will at some time during our lives suffer from insomnia to some degree. Most insomnia will cure itself, however sometimes it can persist for long periods, or become so bad that the person can feel like they’re not sleeping at all.
Different types of sleep
Sleep is not one uniform phenomenon. It comes in different ‘flavours’, if you like. Firstly, we have slow wave sleep (SWS) which is divided into stages 1, 2, 3 and 4; stage 4 sleep being known as deep sleep. The best-known aspect of sleep is of course dreaming which occurs mostly in Rapid Eye Movement sleep, or REM. This state is unlike other sleep stages as the brain is very active, so much so that it has been called ‘paradoxical sleep’.
The need for sleep
Although we are not yet sure of all the benefits sleep brings, several points are clear.
1) REM sleep is essential for emotional health. Dreaming has the function of ridding the emotional centres of the brain of unfulfilled emotional arousal from the previous day, thus leaving us more able to cope well with the next day’s emotionally arousing incidents(1).
When we don’t get enough REM sleep, we can often feel a bit ‘hyperactive’. REM is suppressed by alcohol - you may have noticed the effect of being a bit ‘wound up’ the day after a heavy night’s drinking. This is due, in part at least, to the fact that you have not dreamed enough. You can imagine what happens if we constantly under-dream.
2) Slow wave sleep is essential for rejuvenation of physical processes. The exact ways in which this happens are as yet unclear, but we do know that the immune system benefits from a good night’s sleep. A reduction in sleep of 2 hours per night has been shown to reduce the number of natural killer cells (disease fighters) by as much as 20%.
3) Extreme sleep deprivation can cause highly unpleasant and bizarre effects such as loss of balance, memory and even hallucinations. So we can see that a good night’s sleep is not a luxury; it is an absolute necessity.
Topics: Disorders |
Comments