How do people know to not fall out of their beds while they sleep? – Louisa, age five.
You might think that once we sleep we’re completely unconscious and do not know what is occurring around us. But this isn’t true in any respect.
While we’re sleeping, our bodies and minds are still working to maintain us healthy and comfortable. We still have some idea of where we’re.
Our body knows the way it is moving and where it is due to a way called “ProprioceptionIt's like a “sixth sense” that helps your body know where it’s on this planet and where all of the parts of your body relate to one another.
This sixth sense prevents us from tripping or falling into things once we are awake.
You might think it will be off once we are sleeping. But since our body works even while we sleep, our sixth sense can also be working.
Even though we’re asleep, we will still feel if we’re comfortable and our sixth sense is working to inform us where we’re in our beds. It helps us know to not fall out.
But the system doesn't at all times work well once we're young. This is why children sometimes fall away from bed.
As we become old we improve at this, so older children and adults are less more likely to fall away from bed.
Shutterstock
Different stages of sleep
Our sleep isn’t the identical throughout the night. It goes through different stages, from light sleep to deep sleep and back again.
A special stage of sleep, where we’ve got our most interesting dreams, known as REM sleep. REM stands for rapid eye movement. When our eyes attempt to see the whole lot we’re dreaming.
During this phase, our brain sends a message to our body to stop moving in order that we’re less more likely to stand up or fall away from bed.
If our body didn't send this message to our brain, we might make our dreams come true!
Message not received.
Some people's brains don’t send this message and these people achieve their dreams. This known as “rapid eye movement disorder.” This could be very rare.
There are stories of individuals with this disorder who hurt themselves by petting imaginary cats or attempting to jump away from bed while they sleep. Most of them get up unaware that they’ve done something extraordinary until someone tells them.
Sleep could be very necessary to assist us grow larger and stronger. Our bodies and brains are also working while we’re there to assist heal any injuries and keep us comfortable and healthy.