Last Updated on January 30, 2021
The human brain is a fascinating, highly complex, and remarkable organ. It contains over 86 billion nerve cells and is responsible for controlling the vast majority of the body, it processes, integrates, and coordinates information received from the sense organs, and makes decisions.
Your brain never rests. Not even when you are asleep – when you sleep, your brain does a series of crucial tasks. That’s why a good night’s sleep is so essential for your brain health and has a significant impact on other aspects of your life: it improves your mood, gives you an energy boost, and also contributes to improving your physical health.
You are probably very curious about your brain activity during your peaceful sleep. Without further ado, here are eight things that your brain does when you sleep.
1. It goes through several different sleep stages
Your sleep isn’t linear. It occurs in sleep cycles, the progression through the three stages of NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) sleep to REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, and back again to NREM. A full sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes on average.
NON REM stages 1-2-3: Stage 1 is the transition between waking and sleep. Although you are technically asleep, you are still aware of your surroundings and can wake up quickly if someone calls your name, for example. Then you transition to stage 2, which makes up for approximately half of the total sleep time before reaching deep sleep – stage 3.
REM sleep stage: this is the fun part. It is called rapid eye movement sleep because, during this stage, your eyes move very quickly in various directions.
The heart rate and breathing also accelerate, and you can have very intense dreams. The first REM stage of your sleep lasts on average 10 minutes, but the following ones can last much longer – the final REM stage can last up to an hour!
2. It helps you make decisions
The brain never stops processing information. It continues doing so during sleep and can even prepare for actions during that time.
Moreover, it can also process stimuli during sleep and respond accordingly. An experiment That was conducted by a group of scientists obtained conclusive results that were published in the Current Biology journal.
The scientists asked participants to press the left and right buttons to indicate if the words they were hearing were either real or fake. Participants were lying in a dark room and encouraged to fall asleep.
During their sleep, the scientists kept the experiment going, and brain monitoring equipment detected that their brains were still preparing the motor response to push the right and left buttons.
3. It creates and consolidates memories
This is one of its most important tasks! When you are asleep, the brain is simultaneously creating new memories, consolidating older memories, and putting all the pieces together by linking new memories to older ones in a kind of organizational process.
That is also why it is imperative to get a good sleep before an exam or presentation. Sleeping is essential to allow your brain to store important information that you can access later.
4. It restores energy
Sleeping is necessary to restore your energy levels to face the new day. Therefore, sleep problems such as sleep deprivation and insomnias (or any other sleep disorders, for that matter) may affect your brain and overall health, including your mental health.
On top of all this, poor sleep will make your brain be craving high-calorie food like carbohydrates to give it the energy boost it desperately needs, and you will be more like to have mood swings.
5. It boosts your creativity
Many people feel more productive and creative early in the morning. That might be because the brain makes unexpected and creative new connections when you are asleep – that otherwise, it wouldn’t make.
A study published in 2007 that experimented with 56 participants demonstrated that participants who had a good night’s sleep were more prone to generate new insight and build remote associations.
6. It clears out toxins
The brain removes molecular detritus and other toxins that might cause diseases such as Alzheimer’s and different types of dementia during sleep.
Although a lot of research is still needed on this subject, there are several studies with animals that show that during their sleep, the brain clears out damaging molecules associated with neurodegenerative disease.
7. It paralyzes your body
When you reach the last stage of sleep, the REM sleep, your body becomes wholly paralyzed – a safety mechanism to prevent your body from moving while you are dreaming, this way you won’t physically act out vivid dreams.
Only your respiratory system and eyes keep moving. That is why sometimes sleep paralysis occurs in the process of waking up.
This happens because your mind regains its consciousness before the REM sleep cycle so that you will be aware of your surroundings but without any control over your body function. It only lasts a few seconds, but it can be pretty scary and make you wake up very frightened.
8. It improves physical skills
If you have been practicing your guitar skills, throwing hundreds of free-throws at the basketball court, or training your mechanic abilities in a videogame, get a good night’s sleep after.
During the REM sleep stage, your brain solidifies all the information it had collected during your practice and stores it in your temporal lobe.
This is why some physical tasks and repeated movements become an anatomic and almost unconscious action. Ever wondered how certain basketball players have an outstanding shooting percentage from the free-throw line?
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These are the reasons why medical experts consider that sleeping an ideal amount of hours and having a good quality sleep is so important for your health in the long-term.
If you have a good sleep, a healthy and balanced diet, and a regular exercising routine, chances are you will be living a great life for long years.
