Hi,
I just fell asleep in class with the camera off and when the professor called my name to make sure my group was ready to present I immediately woke up to say that I was in the lecture and almost had a heart attack because missing this specific lecture is an automatic fail. I wanted to ask anyone as to why we wake up if someone calls our name even when we’ve been asleep for 10+ minutes, but don’t wake up when hearing other people’s names or the lecture content.
In: Biology
Your brain does still process sounds from your environment even while you’re sleeping. Obviously it would be detrimental to your sleep to awaken for every sound, so you’re able to “tune out” a lot of unnecessary stimuli. You’re able to recognize important sounds, though, like your own name or one of your children or pets in distress. How much you’re able to process and how fast you wake up will depend on the stage of sleep that you’re in.
There’s even some research that shows that when you’re sleeping in an unfamiliar environment, you “sleep with one eye open” by sleeping lighter and remaining more alert to more potential threats.
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