12 Unknown Facts About Sleep

Sleep is a greatest gift of nature and is must to live a healthy, long and quality life. People who don't fall asleep or have difficulty in falling sleep suffer from both mental and physical health issues. People having insomnia (sleeplessness) suffer from anxiety, stress and lack of concentration.

People who don't get a sound sleep feel tired during the day. They also suffer from weight gain and have decreased immunity. There are many natural methods to fall asleep, such as meditation, reducing stress and eating healthy foods.

However there are many wonderful things associated to sleep. You must know these facts regarding sleep as they are interesting and somewhat weird.

Have a look at some of the weird and interesting things that happen during sleep.

Your Eyes Move

It is normal to move the eye balls during sleep. There are five stages of sleep and eye movement that happens in fifth stage is called rapid eye movement. During this stage you dream and are in deep sleep.

You Get Paralysed

Have you ever seen a dream in which you are running or doing any other body movements? However, in reality you can't move your body as it is paralysed. This happens to prevent you from making movements while you dream. This paralysis is normal and happens to every person in deep sleep.

You Are Jerked Awake

You must have felt sometimes that you were falling or get jerked in sleep and wake up. This is a normal part of sleep. This happens that your brain confuses falling asleep with actual falling and tries to keep you awake. However, scientists still are can't find a valid reason for this.

You Get Aroused

This is normal to feel aroused during sleep and it happens in both sexes. A research has shown that this happens to prevent your body to go into a condition just like comma. After reaching a state of arousal your body ensures that it can wake up from sleep when needed. So your brain also connects you with the real world during sleep. This is one of the amazing facts about sleep.

Sleep Talk

About 6 percent of people talk during sleep. This is more seen in men than women and also in children. This condition is known as somniloquy. This is not harmful and you may not even realise it. But it may disturb your partner's sleep. The main reasons of sleep talking are stress, depression and any illness.

Text Messages

This is common among youngsters who keep on sending text messages during the day and during night they unintentionally reach out for phone and send text messages. The words may be jumbled without any meaning.

Teeth Grinding

Most people grind teeth while in sleep. This is a medical condition and is called as bruxism. This may cause cracking or chipping of teeth and also cause sore jaw muscles. Exact reason of teeth grinding is not known but a study shows that it may be due to stress and anxiety. You must visit your dentist and get a mouth guard fitted immediately.

You May Hear Exploding Sound

Many people above the age of 50 hear a loud sound of explosion or gun shot during sleep. This condition is known as exploding head syndrome. This is usually painless but extremely frightening experience.

Growth Hormone

When you are in deep sleep your body produces a growth hormone. This hormone helps in the growth of muscles and bones when you are young. When you are grown up, it helps in repair of the body. Due to this reason sound sleep is called as beauty sleep.

Your Kidneys Slow Down

Your kidneys work all day long to filter toxins from blood and produce urine. However, during night this function of kidneys is slowed down so that you don't feel to urinate after every couple of hours and you sleep without any disturbance.

Your Throat Gets Narrower

During sleep, throat muscles relax and get narrower as a result breathing pattern also changes. Some people's throat gets narrower and that is the reason they snore.

Your sense of smell stops

During sleep your sense of smell stops and there are many cases when fire broke out at night and inmates of the house were unaware of it. People have also died of gas poisoning during sleep as they can't sense the smell of poisonous gases.