1. When you go to sleep, you don’t realize it. There’s no moment when you’re lying in bed and you know you’re about to fall asleep, and even after you wake up, you can’t remember what you were thinking about right before conking out. Why?
2. How do our brains know when to wake up? What chemical reaction is finishing that makes the body realize that it doesn’t need any more sleep?
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1. This has a false premise. It is possible to train oneself to know when you’re about to fall asleep. Overall, however, the brain goes into a different mode due to various cyclic chemical changes (melatonin hormone being one example) and doesn’t need to have a memory of falling asleep. Your awareness merely shifts from being aware of your waking surroundings to being aware of whatever random thoughts your brain is generating in its nightly routine of sorting and organizing memories.
2. When the brain is done with what it needs to do, or if there is a physiological need that is becoming urgent (hunger, low blood sugar, having to pee, distraction of a loud noise, etc.) then you wake up.
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