How does sound “stop” when you’re about to fall asleep? I’ve been sleeping with a fan on due to the heat and I noticed as I fall asleep, it sort of “cuts off” and not fades to silence. What stops it?

Question

Title really. If it just me that experiences this then I’ll be amazed

In: 182

Answer 1

Your brainwave state has changed from alpha, relaxed and awake, to theta, entering first stages of sleep. As it moves into deeper theta, your brain functions differently as you lose waking consciousness, enter REM sleep (dreaming), and eventually moves into delta, deep, dreamless sleep.

Here’s more about the fuzzy boundaries between hearing and not-hearing, during the liminal states between waking and sleeping:
[https://theconversation.com/brains-can-make-decisions-while-we-sleep-here-they-are-in-action-31716](https://theconversation.com/brains-can-make-decisions-while-we-sleep-here-they-are-in-action-31716)