Alvin Silverstein - Handy Health Guide to Better Sleep

feeling dreamy

We all want to be healthy. Taking care of yourself is an important part of feeling your best. This handy guides teaches you what happens when you sleep, why it affects the way you feel when you are awake, what happens in your brain when you sleep and dream, and much more!

About the Author

Dr. Alvin Silverstein is a retired professor of biology at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. Virginia Silverstein translates scientific Russian and is a professional author. Together they have written more than 200 books for young people. Laura Silverstein Nunn has coauthored more than 100 books with her parents.

Getting a good nights sleep helps people to be ready for the days activities.

What would you do if you never had to go to sleep? You could have more time to watch television or play video games. And you could spend more time hanging out with your friends. Why should you waste your time sleeping when theres so much for you to do? Actually, you dont have a choice. Your body needs to sleep.

Your body is not like the Energizer Bunny. It cant go on and on without stopping. By the end of a day full of actionthinking, moving, eatingyou are tired. Sleep may seem like a waste of time, but you need it to reenergize your body. A good nights sleep helps you to grow, regain your strength, and think clearly. Also, it just makes you feel better.

A good nights sleep can help you feel good and stay healthy.

Sleep is a natural part of your life, but sometimes you may have trouble sleeping. You can tell when you didnt get a good nights sleep. You still feel tired when you wake up. You may be in a bad mood all day. Your body feels like it is dragging. What can you do to wake up feeling well rested?

Sleep is surely one of the worlds greatest mysteries. Lets find out more about sleep and why it is so important. What is going on in your body when you sleep? And how can you sleep better?

Have you ever seen somebody else sleepingyour mom or dad or your brother or sister? Sleeping people just lie there. Its almost like they are turned off, the way you would turn off a TV set. Actually, though, there is a lot going on inside themand youall the time, even when youre sleeping.

You fall asleep in stages, getting deeper and deeper. Stage 1 sleep is the dozing stageyou are not quite awake, but you are not fully asleep either. Your muscles start to relax, and your heart rate and breathing slow down and become steady. In this stage, you may be partly aware of the world around you.

During Stage 2 sleep, you are really asleep, but it is a very light sleep. Your body becomes more and more relaxed.

As you move into Stages 3 and 4, you fall into a deeper sleep. Your body temperature falls, and your breathing and heart rate slow down even more. It is hard for someone to wake you up during these stages, and if you do wake up, youll probably be very groggy.

During the final stage of sleep, your eyes start to move quickly back and forth while your eyelids are still closed. It is almost as if you were watching a movieand, in a way, you are. You are dreaming. This part of your sleep is called REM sleep. (REM stands for rapid eye movements that occur while you dream.) REM sleep is very different from other stages of sleep. In REM sleep, your brain becomes more active, your blood pressure rises, and your heartbeat and breathing speed up.

This PET scan of a human brain was taken during REM sleep. Active areas are red; inactive areas are blue. During REM sleep, the brain is active and dreaming.

It takes about 90 to 100 minutes to go from Stage 1 to the first period of REM sleep. Scientists call this a sleep cycle. You may go through five or six sleep cycles in a night. As the night goes on, your non-REM sleep becomes lighter, and each REM period becomes longer, until you wake up feeling well rested. You may remember parts of a dream if you wake up during your REM sleep.

Yawning is one of the first signs that you are getting tired. When you start to get sleepy, your breathing rate slows down. Sometimes you may not take in enough oxygen to keep your brain working properly. To get more oxygen, you start to yawn. People sometimes yawn when they are bored, too.

Yawning is catching. Have you ever noticed that you feel like yawning when you see someone else yawn?

How do scientists find out what happens while you are sleeping? They know that when your brain is working, electric currents flow along your brain cells. (Dont worryits only a tiny bit of electricity. It wont hurt you. You cant even feel it.)

Scientists measure the electricity in a persons brain with a machine called an electroencephalograph, or EEG. The EEG machine traces out a special pattern of wiggly lines that look like waves. Certain kinds of waves can be seen when you are awake and your mind is active. But even when you are sleeping, your mind is still working. Scientists collect information about sleep by studying people while they are sleeping. Can you imagine trying to sleep while you are attached to an EEG machine and someone is watching you?

Why is sleep so important? During the day, you spend a lot of time running, jumping, laughing, eating, and talking. You use up a lot of energy, and by the end of the day youre tired. Sleep gives your body a chance to rest. But your mind and body are not completely at rest during sleep. Theyre actually working hard to recharge your batteries so that you will wake up feeling good and ready to go.

While you sleep, your brain sorts out all the things that happened during the day. It stores the important events as memories. It also goes over things you were wondering or worrying about, and you may wake up with answers to some of your problems.

Running and jumping use up energy.

You also grow while you sleep. A chemical called human growth hormone is released in the body during sleep to help the growth of cells and tissues. This growth hormone also helps the body repair itselfto heal cuts, bruises, and sore muscles.

Sleep helps your body conserve energy, too. You use up a lot of energy during your daily activities. But when you sleep, your body temperature falls, and your metabolism (the chemical reactions that use up energy in the body) slows down. You are still using some energy, but much less than when you are awake and active.