With October fast approaching, at Trouble Sleeping, we thought we shared some answers to those ‘sleep questions you were too afraid to ask’ …just in time for Halloween.
In all seriousness, we know there are lots of things that can be confusing about why we sleep, what happens when we are sleep and why people need different amounts of sleep too.
From Dr Lindsay Browning’s extensive experience, we asked her six questions about areas that you may have been wondering about, but were “too afraid to ask”…and, now, you have your answers…
Strange sleep questions – answered
Is it normal to remember your dreams or not?
We don’t dream constantly throughout the night. We tend to be more likely to dream during REM sleep. If we wake up from a deeper part of sleep (non-REM sleep), then we are less likely to be dreaming, and may well not remember our dreams when we wake up. Whereas, if we wake up from within REM sleep, we are much more likely to remember dreaming.
What is happening when we feel ‘aware of our dream’?
This is called Lucid Dreaming.
Lucid dreaming is where we are aware that we are dreaming during the dream and are able to control what happens in the dream itself. When someone is having recurring nightmares, lucid dreaming can help them to change or control the bad dreams, and reduce the frequency of the nightmares. Although many people want to increase how often they have a lucid dream (as it can be fun to change your dreams!), or good to reduce bad dreams, lucid dreaming isn’t always helpful. This is because the role of our dreams is for us to process information and emotions that we experience during the day, and if we are aware that we are dreaming, we are not fully in this restorative dream state. This means that our sleep itself may be less helpful to us, without lucid dreaming.
Is sleep walking dangerous?
Sleepwalking or somnambulism is a parasomnia – a state of sleep, where someone is in-between sleep and wake – they are part asleep and part awake at the same time. Sleepwalking occurs during non-REM sleep (that is usually in the deepest part of sleep), and it’s not somebody acting out their dreams.
It is especially common in children. One research paper from 2015 found the peak of prevalence for sleepwalking was at age 10 years.
Sleepwalking is generally considered harmless. Often the sleepwalker will not remember it occurring the next day. I
f you see someone sleepwalking, the best action is to gently encourage them to turn around and go back to bed. Sleepwalking can become a problem if someone might injure themselves during sleepwalking by falling down the stairs, or even worse, by falling out of a bedroom window in their sleep. In which case, if you know that you sleep walk (or a child might), it’s important to lock bedroom windows and think about installing a stairgate at the top of the stairs to reduce the possibility of injury.
Why do teenagers sleep all of the time…are they just lazy?
No! When people hit their teenage years, their circadian rhythm (their 24-hour clock) starts to shift, wanting them to go to bed later and wake up later. Teenagers tend to want to sleep in late at the weekends because their bodies biologically want them to do this, not just because they are lazy. Difficulties occur when teenagers go to bed much later (as their biology is telling them to do) but they still need to get up for school or college at the normal time, leaving many teenagers sleep deprived.
If you have teens in your house, it’s a good idea to explain to them that getting up at the same time seven days a week will help them to fall asleep at the right time and wake up feeling refreshed every morning. Long lie-ins at the weekend can actually make the issue worse.
Is sex helpful for sleep?
Whilst sex most likely involves vigorous exercise, which isn’t ideal right before sleep, interestingly sex before sleep can be very helpful.
After orgasm, we produce hormones including oxytocin and prolactin which make you feel relaxed and happy, both of which are helpful for sleep. Also, sex can reduce levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, which also means sleep will be easier to achieve.
How long can you stay awake?
Ideally, it is recommended that you want to get 7-9 hours of sleep each night – so this means only being awake for 17 hours in the day time (to get the 7 hours of sleep within 24).
In terms of records, it is actually very hard to track with precision when someone is fully awake – and has been continuously. People often have micro sleeps without realising it.
However in 1963-1964 (over New Year) Randy Gardner reportedly stayed awake for 11 days and 25 minutes ending on eighth of January 1964. Randy did not seem to suffer any effects from his 11 days awake. However, this is in contrast to a radio DJ Peter Tripp who stayed awake for 201 hours whilst broadcasting from a glass booth in Times Square in 1959. Around the fourth day, he began to experience hallucinations. In both cases, when Randy and Peter were able to sleep after the experiment, they both only slept for around 13 to 14 hours, which is much less sleep than they missed out on.
Do you have more questions about sleep?
Sleep is such an important part of our lives. It is not surprising that we often have questions about it. Everyone sleeps a little differently and has different experiences too.
If you are concerned about your sleep, your dreams, your ability to stay awake or to get off to sleep, then don’t leave these questions about your night time activity go unanswered.
We are happy to answer further sleep questions via social media and in a future blog.