What happens when to your brain when you go to sleep? The answer to that is there are actually a lot of things going on on your brain as you sleep. But the most important thing that happens as you have REM(rapid-eye movement) sleep is that your brain begins to have structural changes within as shown by the synapses found in experiments done on sleeping patients. Your brain can only take in a limited amount of information about certain things during the day and during sleep these information is consolidated through the structural changes that happen during sleep. There is such a term as over-practice or overworking the brain, wherein further study or practice can result in actually result in a poorer expected performance. This is because the brain had to much input and could not process all of it during sleep. It is also given that the more information you need to take in, the more consolidation time your brain needs. Scheduling sleep and taking naps can actually help in improving over-all performance.

Effects of  Sleep Deprivation

There are various things that happen to people who are don’t get enough sleep. The things I experience personally is the lack of focus during the entire day, the severe decline in hand-eye coordination and response time, and the proneness to stress and anxiety. These things lead to even worse results. If I can’t focus, I have trouble learning and concentrating. With hand-eye coordination decline, driving a car can put myself and other people at risk. Proneness to stress and anxiety also lead to irritability and lack of insight. And we’re only talking about the brain here. The body also suffers a huge blow when we lack sleep. Blemishes are more likely to appear. The immune system’s defenses drop. And muscle and bone growth is impeded because of hormonal disorder. In fact, animal research has proved these effects by subjecting sleep-deprived lab mice to a water maze time trial. Results show that the mice that were sleep deprived took longer than the mice that had adequate sleep even though all the mice already went through the same water maze the day before.

Insomnia and It’s Cures

Getting deprived of sleep because of work is one thing, but getting deprived of sleep just because you can’t go to sleep is quite stressful. Not only are you not making your time productive during the endeavor to go to sleep, you are also causing yourself to worry because you cannot seem to go sleep. There are people who in-fact suffer from insomnia without any worries except that they worry that they won’t be able to go to sleep. For these people, I have some advice that I followed during my insomniac childhood years. One, do not take part in any exciting activity 2 hours prior to sleeping. Do not exercise, watch TV, use your gadgets, or even take a walk. Just try to relax for almost an hour before sleeping. Second, do not take any caffeine or sugar within 8 hours before bedtime. Third, do not think about the day to follow. CAT scans show that increased activity is present in insomniacs’ brains. So the trick is not to over think. Even listening to music can sometimes arouse the activity centers of the brain. Fourth is to avoid wrong advice. Personally, I tried listening to audio books and music to fall asleep. It did not help quite a bit. Lastly, a glass of milk always goes a long way in helping you to fall asleep.

Taking Naps

Taking a nap might seem quite unproductive, but studies have shown that a well scheduled nap can be as beneficiary as a good night’s rest. Finger dexterity has been known to increase by 16% after a nap. A study by K. Anders Ericsson, Swedish Psychology professor, has shown naps aid in new memory formation leading to better grasping of concepts, increased creativity, and even better learning and retention. Coming up is an article on how to schedule naps and get the most out of your naps.

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