Crazy eye movements
When we fall asleep we initiate a complex serious of change in consciousness that succeeds each other throughout the night. There is no one uniform that we call sleep. The deepest sleep comes almost immediately after we fall asleep, followed by a period of lighter sleep, this is when our eyeballs go crazy beneath our closed eyelids.
This phase is called rapid eye movement (REM) when sleep is associated with dreaming. On average this happens 5 times a night during an 8 hours sleep pattern and generally wakening after the first one. People wakened during REM will briefly remember their dreams but shock of an alarm clock going off will probably instantly drive our dreams away.
Many people will say they never dream but through research it’s proven that everyone dreams. The EEG machine that used to measure our brain activity has established a sleep pattern we all conform to. As we become drowsy our brainwaves become longer and slower and eventually the delta waves of the deepest sleep. This is when our bodies go into shutting down our systems; digestive processes and the production of urine diminishes. The heart slows down, under closed the eyelids the pupils contract and our bodies require less oxygen to breath.
There are two forms of sleep Orthodox and Paradoxical
We start with Orthodox which is split into four phases, The first is accompanied by slower pulse and is a light sleep where the brainwaves slow down. A state that the smallest noise or street lamp can wake you. Second and third phase we enter a deeper state of relaxation and slower rate of breathing. Phase four we enter a deep sleep, the EEG records long slow delta waves proof of no mental activity taking place.
Approximately 90 minutes every night we enter the paradoxical sleep with rapid eye movement, increased heart rate and blood pressure and fast erratic brainwaves, a sudden agitation of mental activity. We are dreaming.
Some physical can mimic wakefulness, production of adrenalin during dreaming of danger or horror but during dreams of this phase our muscles are at their weakest, it’s like we are paralysed.
Physiological dream is where physical activity or outside influences are dramatised in our dreams e.g a telephone ringing could be dream alarm or a full bladder could turn into a dream of drowning. People who are highly active especially if its been dangerous, traumatic or mentally stretched require more paradoxical sleep. The soothing restoration of harmony that sleeping and dreaming brings.