There’s a rather run of the mill article over at the Aurora Sentinel describing the work of a sleep physician – it’s pretty dull, but one part did catch our eye. Dr. Michael Weissberg states that:
Sleep is not a unitary state. People think that either you’re asleep or you’re awake and that’s not true. Something’s going on in your brain while you’re asleep – some parts are on, some are off.
So maybe when you finally crawl out of bed in the morning thinking you’ve been lying awake all night, you’ve actually had a decent amount of sleep.
Well, probably not – but knowing that the definition of ‘being asleep’ isn’t clear-cut may help you relax at night and stop pressuring yourself to fall asleep. Remember – the more you worry about getting to sleep, the less sleep you’ll get.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I think insomniacs who are actually getting some sleep may simply not be getting the right levels of sleep–I tend to sleep lightly most of the night, and not get into the two lover levels of sleep. I am *not* refreshed by shallow sleep, no matter how much or how little I get of it.
Now that I read this, especially the title, I have something to add.
Babies don’t sleep in large chunks of time, and they tend, until they have *learned* how to sleep for longer, as well as been able to get enough sustenance to last them through more sleep, to wake every 2-4 hours for biological needs.
As I find myself having a harder time *waking up* in the mornings (the bed has superglue, and the dogs generate sleepyons), I notice myself drifting in and out of sleep. I probably do it at night, too, but there’s no way for me to see the passage of time via the light outside. Drifting in and out of sleep is still not getting me the kind or amount of sleep I need to feel rested and then alert upon waking, but it IS better than nothing.