Matthew Walker, professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and author of the new book Why We Sleep, has demonstrated that people who achieved REM sleep during a nap were better able to judge facial expressions afterward than those who’d napped without reaching REM. REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep) is when we tend to dream more vividly. It is unique to mammals and birds. It is distinguished by the movement of the eyes and low muscle tone throughout the body.
Several studies in recent years have suggested that REM sleep can affect how accurately people can read emotions and process external stimuli. REM sleep has been called a data dump. It is thought that much of the emotional charge of our day is released as we dream.
The benefit of dreaming is just another reason to get plenty of rest.
REM sleep stages tend to be relatively short during the first two-thirds of the night as the body prioritizes deeper, slow-wave sleep. And because longer periods of REM sleep only happen during the final hours of sleep (in the early morning, for most people), it can get cut off when you don’t spend a full seven or eight hours in bed, says psychologist Rubin Naiman, a sleep and dream specialist at the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and the author of a recent review about dreaming published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
This week, set your intention to get a good night’s rest. Apparently sweet dreams do matter!
Tips from 5 April 2010 to 6 August 2012 are here: Archived Tips
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Rev. Debra Basham
Voice or text: (269) 921-2217 Email: debra@scs-matters.com http://DebraBasham.com http://ImagineHealing.info http://SurgicalSupport.info Small Changes … Infinite Results™
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” ~ Mother Teresa |