Skip to main content

WHAT HAPPENS IN MY BODY ...WHEN I SLEEP?


Sleep consists of two radically different physiological states. There is rapid eye movement sleep (REM) and non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM). The sleep stages seem to have different functions, but why we sleep is still not completely understood. Babies spend half of their sleep in REM, but this drops to a quarter by the age of two. It is therefore thought that REM sleep is particularly vital for the developing brain. In NREM sleep, brain activity slows and a person woken at this stage may feel groggy.

1. Pituitary gland During non-REM sleep, the pituitary gland produces growth hormone and secretes prolactin. This counteracts dopamine, to lower general arousal levels.


2. Mouth You produce less saliva, which reduces the need to swallow. Five per cent of adults also grind their teeth at night, mostly during the early stages of sleep.


3. Lungs The throat muscles relax so your airway narrows when inhaling. This can cause snoring, or temporarily halt your breathing for a few seconds (sleep apnoea).


4. Heart Your pulse drops by 10-30bpm while you sleep, lowering your blood pressure. Less blood flows to the brain, and more is diverted to your muscles.


5. Limbs The extra blood swells your arms and legs slightly. Muscles are paralysed while dreaming, but, between dreams, you change sleeping position 35 times a night.


6. Bladder Vasopressin hormone levels rise. This reduces the amount of urine collected in the bladder to between a half and a third of normal daytime levels.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DO ALL FISH AND SHELLFISH CONTAIN MERCURY?

Mercury levels in the oceans have tripled since the Industrial Revolution, thanks to mining and the burning of fossil fuels. All sea creatures absorb some of this heavy metal directly, and, once it’s in the body, there’s no way of getting rid of it. The amount of mercury in fish varies between species. Long-lived predators like tuna and swordfish tend to contain the most, because they also absorb mercury from their prey and they’ve had a long time to accumulate it. The lowest levels are found in short-lived species lower down the food chain, such as oysters and shrimp.
Post a Comment
Read more

Why do different countries use different mains voltages?

Why do different countries use different mains voltages? the biggest disparity is between the usA on 110V and most of the rest of the world on 230V. America’s lower voltage goes all the way back to thomas edison, who introduced direct current (dC) mains electricity at 110V. edison’s rival nikola tesla showed that long power lines transmitted alternating current (AC) more efficiently than dC. His AC approach won out, but he stuck with edison’s 110V. But by the time electrification spread to europe early in the 20th Century, lamps had filaments that could give out more light and handle greater power loads. so the Berliner elektrizitätswerke company in Germany established 230V as the standard. 
Post a Comment
Read more

The top ten most coldest places in the world.

THE 10 COLDEST PLACES 01 Ridge near Dome Fuji antarctica –93.2°C recorded in August 2010 from a remote sensing satellite. 02 Vostok Station antarctica –89.2°C the lowest groundmonitored temperature, recorded on 21 July 1983 at a russian Antarctic research station. 03 dome Argus antarctica –82.5°C 04 Amundsenscott south pole station antarctica –82.5°C 05 Oymyakon russia –71.2°C the lowest air temperature recorded in the northern hemisphere was detected at this russian village in 1926. 06 Klinck research station greenland –69.4°C 07 north ice greenland –66°C this low was recorded at this British north Greenland expedition research station in 1954. 08 Snag Yukon, Canada –63°C 09 Denali Alaska, USA -59.7°C 10 Verkhoyansk russia –45.4°C
Post a Comment
Read more