13
votes
Accepted
Why do we wake up when we die in our dreams?
When you dream you're in REM sleep (rapid eye movement). REM sleep is only slightly more "deep" than stage 1 of non-REM which means it's not that hard to wake you up in the first place.
Dying in a ...
- 338
8
votes
Accepted
Can you catch up on sleep over the weekend?
Well, to be able to answer your question affirmatively, we'd have to know all the effects of sleep deprivation, including the long term ones, and those are still are not fully accounted for.
However I ...
- 10.2k
7
votes
Accepted
What is the cause of frequent nightmares?
Nightmares can be defined as (Pagel, 2000):
...vivid and terrifying nocturnal episodes in which the dreamer is abruptly awakened from sleep. Typically, the dreamer wakes from REM sleep and is able ...
- 20.5k
7
votes
Accepted
How can someone asleep recognize a very brief sound?
Short answer
The auditory system remains active during sleep.
Background
Filtering of sensory input during sleep is a recognized phenomenon and indeed the senses are typically lulled during sleep. ...
- 20.5k
7
votes
Does our consciousness die when we go to sleep or fall into a coma?
Q: Does our consciousness die when we go to sleep or fall into a coma?
A: No, neuroscientifically speaking, the consciousness does not die when we are sleeping or are in a coma; it is just in a sleep ...
- 1,825
6
votes
Is it possible to become addicted to sleep deprivation?
Possibly of interest:
2011 study from Berkeley, published in the Journal of Neuroscience: Pulling an all-nighter can bring on euphoria and risky behavior: https://news.berkeley.edu/2011/03/22/pulling-...
6
votes
Accepted
Is mindfulness meditation an effective method to fall asleep?
**Is there any empirical evidence meditation is good for sleep? **
Yes. There is. But it definitely depends on the type of meditation. Some types of meditation increase alertness. A few articles I ...
- 863
6
votes
Accepted
Death from sleep deprivation, what physical mechanism is failing that makes one not to be alive anymore?
As far as I know REM is just brain running a simulation
During sleep hormones and neurotransmitters shift in their quantities available along the phases of sleep: slow wave sleep, intermediate ...
- 597
5
votes
Do neurons fire at a faster rate during dreaming?
In REM sleep, the EEG is remarkably similar to that of the awake state (Purves et al., 2001). Although the EEG represents the synchronized activity of many neurons in the cortex, it does give us a ...
- 20.5k
5
votes
Accepted
Is it counter-productive to study while tired?
Yes. When studying sleep is crucial in consolidating memories. Recently a wave of research and opinion has hit around optimizing learning, sleep is always mentioned as key. To prominent authors are ...
- 863
5
votes
Accepted
Can you Counteract the Negative Effects of Sleep Deprivation?
Nutrients have little to do with it*, it's the rest cycles that are important.
Cells are messy, stumbling, statistically functional things. Periodically, a cell needs to take a break so it can ...
- 5,610
5
votes
Accepted
Sleep vs. Trance
Wearing those big headphone is indirectly a way to isolate yourself from the surrounding sound. That is usually a prelude for relaxation, or meditation. (In people with audiotory disorder, or with ...
- 166
4
votes
Can split-brain patients sleep like whales?
Short answer
An animal study did not reveal any effects on the synchronization of the cerebral hemispheres after callosotomy, as based on EEG recordings. When one hemisphere showed sleep patterns on ...
- 20.5k
4
votes
Accepted
Do animals that sleep during the day have a different sleep architecture than those who sleep at night?
One study (Zhao et. al., 2010), investigating the sleep architecture of two bat species (one nocturnal, and one mixed), notes the following:
C. sphinx was found to sleep predominantly throughout ...
- 1,537
4
votes
Is our sense of smell heightened when we are asleep?
Short answer
The sense of smell may still be operational during sleep, but it is not enhanced. Olfactory stimuli typically will not wake you up during sleep, however.
Background
Olfaction and sleep ...
- 20.5k
4
votes
Does night-sleep-deprivation have any effect on cognitive performance?
According to this article, yes it does have various symptoms including cognitive deficiencies that make us more prone to errors and less efficient :
Circadian rhythms biologically program us to ...
- 2,177
4
votes
Can we interconnect with other people mentally during dreaming?
Short answer
Telepathy is pseudoscience.
Background
I think you are referring to the phenomenon of telepathy, which can be defined as
[T]he purported transmission of information from one person ...
- 20.5k
4
votes
Accepted
Difference between drowsiness/sedation and sleepiness
Sedation
This is a forced state of drowsiness or sleep and as indicated in your Ipnos link, it will not necessarily help with drowsiness or sleepiness brought about due to problems with your ...
- 12.1k
4
votes
Can dreams predict the future?
Short answer
Dreams cannot predict the future.
Background
Likely you are referring to Deja reve ('already dreamed'), which has been hypothesized to be (Schredi et al., 2017):
...the distinct ...
- 20.5k
4
votes
Is there any scientific data showing one can learn while sleeping?
I don't think that it is possible to learn new facts while sleeping, but it is certainly possible to reactivate certain memories during sleep and thereby affect the probability of those memories being ...
- 235
3
votes
Understanding Melatonin
There is an entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica on Melatonin which gives a run-down on how melatonin is produced and it's use within sleep, regulating reproductive hormones, and helping the immune ...
- 12.1k
3
votes
Can time be slowed in a lucid dream?
I'd say yes, in german literature there are some reportings of athelets "training" in slow motion while they are lucid dreaming. I'll try to recap those reportings in english.
Paul Tholey &...
- 161
3
votes
Accepted
How many times on average do people wake up per night?
Based on this paragraph from the Wikipedia article on hypnograms
On a hypnogram, a sleep cycle is usually around 90 minutes and there are four to six cycles of REM/NREM stages that occur during a ...
- 234
3
votes
Why do we talk unconsciously while sleeping
Brief periods of sleep-talking (somniloquy), mostly gibberish, are quite common, particularly in children. It is not typically useful to call something a "disorder" unless it is causing a problem. ...
- 19.4k
3
votes
Why do Spiritual people try to sleep less?
There's a difference between spiritual people and students trying to learn something. Sleep deprivation is an effective tool of breaking old learned routines - you just cant remember them too well ...
- 9,390
3
votes
Does dreaming cuts our sleeping hours?
One small study (2015) in otherwise healty subjects, found no correlation between nightmares and the quality of sleep measured using widely used objective methods, or more precisely
sleep measures ...
- 10.2k
3
votes
Accepted
Is there a known mechanism by which people fall asleep less easy after watching TV?
What you describe is rather common for a certain type of insomnia, called psychophysiologic.
The patient has evidence of conditioned sleep difficulty and/
or heightened arousal in bed as ...
- 10.2k
3
votes
Accepted
Why didn't I wake up after dying in a dream?
We still don't know much about dreams, and researching them is, at the most, a volatile kind of attempt to do science. It would be interesting what the statistics in the papers you read were based on, ...
- 409
3
votes
Accepted
Why might sleeping on the floor alleviate PTSD symptoms?
Why might sleeping on the floor alleviate PTSD symptoms?
Question: Does sleeping on the floor have similar neurotransmitter effects, as sleeping under a weighted blanket might? Psychiatrically, would ...
- 311
3
votes
Is there any scientific data showing one can learn while sleeping?
I am almost a layman but I got to learn something on the subject.
As far as I could understand, what in common can be found in wake/sleep and learning are the brain waves. Neurons exchange signals in ...
- 31
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