Is there an exact moment we fall asleep?
In: Biology
[removed]
Not really. Sleep involves several stages.
Stage “0” is when you are fully awake but beginning to calm down and prepare for sleep. Your brain begins to switch from fast beta brain waves to slower alpha waves. Your breathing and heart rate slow down. This is when you may experience *myoclonic jerk* which is that sudden feeling that you’re falling and jerk awake.
Stage 1: your brain begins producing theta waves which are longer and slower than alpha. This is when you can be said to begin transitioning into sleep. If you wake up during this stage, though, you may not feel as if you were ever asleep. This takes about 5 to 10 minutes.
Stage 2: Your breathing and heart rate slow more and become rhythmic. Your body temperature drops. You become unaware of yourself and your surroundings. This lasts for about 20 minutes and can be up to 50% of your total sleep time.
Stage 3: This is the deepest part of your sleep. Your brain is very slow and inactive. You are generally totally unaware of your surroundings and even stimuli that would wake you up in other stages won’t wake you.
REM sleep: This is when you dream. Your brain is very active.
Transitioning between the stages is like walking into the ocean: the water slowly overtakes you while waves occasionally wash over you. There’s no one moment when you are in the water, only moving more into it. Likewise, sleep slowly overtakes you with increasing waves. There aren’t distinct transitions even between stages, just blurred moments when you are sort of in one and sort of in the other and then more in one and then totally in one.
The average person will initially fall into a light sleep stage in 10-20 minutes unless there is some sort of problem.
Doesn’t really answer your question but you might like [this](https://youtu.be/heegaWr69pw).
Unrelated but I remember watching a video on the moment people start to lose their conciousness. Just get a steel/tin pan and put it next to your bed. Hold a spoon or fork as you sleep and start a timer when you start closing your eyes. When you fall asleep the utensil will hit the pan waking you up and you get to see how long it takes to fall asleep
You might want to have a look at the flip-flop model of the sleep-wake cycle. If I am remembering it correctly, the theory simplified states that you have 2 groups of neurons (sleep promoting and wake promoting) that are inhibiting each other and as soon as one side wins out, the switch flips and you enter a state of sleep. It is a binary system so you can’t be half-asleep or half-awake. I assume that means there is an exact moment when the switch is flipped that you fall asleep. I think there’s some short videos on youtube explaining the model. Cool stuff
How come sometimes I have dreams if I only sleep for five minutes? Shouldn’t it take longer than that to get to REM?
Alright, I can answer this. I am no scientist but I have been experiencing this thing recently were I am thinking of a certain subject before I fall asleep and this subject starts to get littered with random thoughts when my brain goes into sleepmode. A few nights ago it got really clear and I experienced the act of falling asleep for the first time consiously!
You can’t sense when we drift off to sleep, but we have all had instances where the light switch is turned off by our brain and it fails needing a reset.
Enter hypnic jerk. Ever start to fall asleep and you quickly jerk awake?
Your body needs itself paralyzed before going off to dreamland. Before turning off the lights your brain shoots off a “jerk” to your muscles to see if your are actually ready for sleep. If you are ready for sleep this jerk has zero effect, but if your motor system is still online then you jerk awake; this is intentional.
If the jerk wakes you it’s intended to restart the sleep process correctly to ensure the series of events that need to happen occur in the correct order.
The jerk for me usually happens when I am really tired like after a day of spending a long time in the sun.
As to your question I would say after this jerk is when you fall asleep.
Sleeping is a process. We enter various “stages” as we fall asleep (and also while we’re asleep), but there is a moment, yes.
If we can remain aware (while the body relaxes deeper and deeper) we can know this moment intimately.
Look for it.
Between waking and sleep, there’s a doorway. Between one thought and another, a doorway. Between one life and another, another doorway.
Enter the between and know it directly.
Latest Answers