Sleep Why do we need sleep? What are dreams What is sleep? Why do we need sleep? What are dreams (and do they have any meaning?) In most cases sleep problems are biological in nature. Therefore, in many cases, sleep problems are not “outgrown” by children and continue to be a problem for adults. Now please note that everyone’s body is a little different and that differences in sleep do exist.

What is Sleep During the day, neurotransmitters in your brain are used up, muscle fibers in your body are damaged as you exercise, bodily tissue dies and needs to be replaced, and immune cells are fighting off bacteria and foreign objects (without you perhaps noticing) This damage needs to be fixed, and the only time that this is done with efficiency is during sleep (REM sleep to be specific).

Why can’t you avoid sleep? Specifically, sleep is tied to your body temperature and your circadian rhythm. Why do you get sleepy at night? Because your body temperature if falling. Why do wake up (why don’t you just sleep for a couple of days?) Because your body temperature is rising. This is why you sometimes wake up if the room becomes too hot. Young people are classified as “Owls”, as their body temperature peaks sometime after 12pm and they can remain awake (often) late into the evening. Older individuals are called “Larks” as body temperature peak before 12pm and they get tired earlier in the afternoon (but may be able to wake up on their own early in the morning).

If you try to avoid sleeping, you can force yourself to stay awake If you try to avoid sleeping, you can force yourself to stay awake. However, within about 36 – 48 hours, a person will start to hallucinate and will lose physical coordination. Thinking gets harder and you lose memory In sleep experiments, when asked, “Are you tired?” People often responded that they were, but when asked “Are you sleepy,” they often said “no.” People are not very aware of exactly how tired or sleepy they are, or how much their behaviour has been effected. In fact when researchers checked on subjects just 4 or 5 minutes after asking them the above questions, they found subjects asleep. Many times having falling asleep while they were working on some task.

Sleep cycle Right after going to sleep, you go into a very deep (biological sleep). This is hard to awaken from. After that you go through a set of wave forms where you alternate between dream sleep and a slightly lighter biological sleep. Dreams happen somewhere close to “awake,” while (oddly) sleep walking, sleep talking, and nigh terrors occur closer to deep biological sleep.

Dreams No one really knows exactly what dreams are or why they occur, but it seems that there are two main streams of thought. Dreams occur as the brain processes information that has occurred during the day. This is the brain’s way of cleaning up after a long day. Dreams are an unconscious process where things that have been bothering you (but that you don’t want to think about) are processed emotionally. You’re dreams are trying to “work out,” conflicts for you.

There is a third idea: This is that parts of the brain stem are randomly activating during the time when your brain is most active (in REM), and that your higher functions are trying to figure out what’s going on. This, then, is why dreams sometimes don’t make sense or that they seem to jump around. Which ever you believe, it is true that your brain crushes dreams together and tries to make a sensible story out them. When you wake up with a vivid dream, this is not one dream, but probably two or three dreams that your brain is threading together.

Interpretation Although dreams can be interpreted, the therapist must know something about the person before you can make any inferences. Further, there is no “one” way to interpret dream symbols or characters that fits for all people all of the time.

Vocabulary Sleep Apnea Somnambulism Lucid dreaming Narcolepsy Insomnia R.E.M. Circadian Rhythm “Hidden Observer” Fatigue