Ah sleep
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Have you read Walker's book, "Why we sleep" ? It's worth the time. He talks about "sleep hygiene" and other stuff.
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Oh nice, I think I've seen him on TV. I remember thinking... yeah sleep is important, unless you have young kids! I don't think I've had a full 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep since 2018! And my wife doesn't do well when she's tired, so that's been fun too.
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The fascinating part of his book is how he describes the various stages of sleep. It is, by no means, a time of "rest" for your brain, esp during REM sleep.
In medical school, half a century ago, we were taught that REM sleep is not "sleep"; it is a wholly other state of consciousness, and Walker's explanation goes into that. He also talks about sleep deprivation, "sleep walking," and other phenomena.
He makes the point that ALL living things "sleep" - even plants.
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For the better part of last month, I've been doing the Pythagoras thing and keeping a dream journal. It took about a week to get into the practice of writing them down just as I "wake up." After trying different things, it turns out my phone is the best tool. What I type out is barely legible because I can't see properly and I'm barely awake enough to do it, but I can follow along the next morning and fix the spelling.
It's been absolutely wild. Some are terrifying, others mundane, others mythological.
Another thing that I'm trying to do is explain why the dream makes sense. Because in the moment of waking up it all seems completely reasonable, but by morning, most of that is forgotten and for the truly random ones, I can't make heads or tails of them.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Ah sleep:
keeping a dream journa
That would be
bizarrefun!Walker makes the point that in NREM (Non-REM) sleep, your brain is doing all kinds of sorting, figuring out what's important to remember - whether something should be sent to short-term, or long-term memory. Perhaps it should be discarded altogether (like what socks I wore yesterday - irrelevant and unimportant).
Once that housekeeping is done, REM sleep starts - usually later in the sleep cycle - and that's where the fun begins. Your brain starts playing "what if" games. It starts putting together memories, sometimes distant, sometimes recent, with other experiences and seeing if things "fit." If they fit, they might get sent back to memory for storage, but if they don't - like eating a pizza during a c-section - they are discarded.
Fascinating stuff. I should reread this book.
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āDuring dreamless, deep NREM sleep, overall metabolic activity shows a modest decrease relative to that measured from an individual while they are resting but awake. However, something very different happens as the individual transitions into REM sleep and begins to dream. Numerous parts of the brain ālight upā on the MRI scan as REM sleep takes hold, indicating a sharp increase in underlying activity. ā In fact, there are four main clusters of the brain that spike in activity when someone starts dreaming in REM sleep: (1) the visuospatial regions at the back of the brain, which enable complex visual perception; (2) the motor cortex, which instigates movement; (3) the hippocampus and surrounding regions that we have spoken about before, which support your autobiographical memory; and (4) the deep emotional centers of the braināthe amygdala and the cingulate cortex, a ribbon of tissue that sits above the amygdala and lines the inner surface of your braināboth of which help generate and process emotions. Indeed, these emotional regions of the brain are up to 30 percent more active in REM sleep compared to when we are awake!ā
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Ah sleep:
Because in the moment of waking up it all seems completely reasonable,
Ain't that the truth. Last night, I think my brain knew I was getting almost 8 hours of sleep instead of 5... the dream I had made sense (now, it makes no sense), it was something about collecting a pile of plants in the forest and only 1 pile would be needed but I found a 2nd pile, and then I think I ended the dream in some futuristic city scape trying to train for a new job.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Ah sleep:
Because in the moment of waking up it all seems completely reasonable,
Ain't that the truth. Last night, I think my brain knew I was getting almost 8 hours of sleep instead of 5... the dream I had made sense (now, it makes no sense), it was something about collecting a pile of plants in the forest and only 1 pile would be needed but I found a 2nd pile, and then I think I ended the dream in some futuristic city scape trying to train for a new job.
This was an entry from just a few days ago. One of those ones where a little context would have gone a long way:
What kind of coffee container? Showing people a ton of different options over something like FaceTime. North Korea had a ridiculous stepup thing that can destroy tires.
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@Aqua-Letifer That is interesting. Why is it (at least for me), that dreams, even if they are so vivid, are quickly forgotten? I will wake up from a dream and, wow!, it is super detailed, etc. but only 10 minutes later, I have trouble remembering it.
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@taiwan_girl I think the most basic answer is your brain turns off long term memory when you're sleeping. Which makes sense, why remember stuff that "doesn't matter" that happens during 1/3 of your life (while sleeping). Short term memory, however, is "on" while you sleep which is why you can remember it for a few moments when you wake up.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Ah sleep:
@Aqua-Letifer said in Ah sleep:
Because in the moment of waking up it all seems completely reasonable,
Ain't that the truth. Last night, I think my brain knew I was getting almost 8 hours of sleep instead of 5... the dream I had made sense (now, it makes no sense), it was something about collecting a pile of plants in the forest and only 1 pile would be needed but I found a 2nd pile, and then I think I ended the dream in some futuristic city scape trying to train for a new job.
This was an entry from just a few days ago. One of those ones where a little context would have gone a long way:
What kind of coffee container? Showing people a ton of different options over something like FaceTime. North Korea had a ridiculous stepup thing that can destroy tires.
Checks out.
Also I just forgot but suddenly remembered... I had a dream you sent over your zombie story to me! (no joke!) It was like 3 short paragraphs long, and in some sort of prose/rhythm
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@89th hahah I'm still looking for it! I KNOW I saved it but it was like 3 computers ago. Still going through the trashbin of Russian dolls that is my older filing system.
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My son feels his dreams hard in the morning, but can't ever remember them. He woke up bawling the other day, but couldn't explain why (and he loves explaining things).
@89th - I'm finally on the in bed at 10 train.... took me couple of decades to get there. I still feel like I'm shortening my day even though I get up earlier. What clicked for me associating reading fiction (which I love to do, but rarely have time for) with getting in bed at 10 - I can read for as long as I want if I can get in bed at 10.... I never make it more than 10 mins though...
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Now that I'm retired, my sleep routine has changed a bit.
When I was working, I would be there at 6:15 or 6:45 - depending on where I was in the rotation. That meant a departure from home at about 5:55 or 6:25. I would go to bed at about 10, and sleep until my alarm went off at 5:15 or 5:25.
Now that I'm not working and have zero obligations, I go to bed around 9, usually falling asleep by 9:30. My 74 year-old prostate usually wakes me at about 3. Sometimes, I can return to sleep, but more often that not, I can't. So I'm up. I read the news, etc, and on a good day, after an hour or so, I can get back to sleep until 6. But that's rare.
Regardless, I'm out of bed by 6.
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Iāve been wearing a watch that tracks my sleep since 2016. In those 8 years I have gotten 8hrs of sleep exactly zero times. Itās just not in me.
Still in doing a bit better than you, 89.
