How long can you go without sleep? Well, experts advise that sleep is essential to every person and one should at least sleep for seven to nine hour a day. To many though, sleeping is just a habit or rather a time to rest. But did you know that your body remains quite active even after visiting the slumberland?
You might not have thought about it but your body engages in some very weird things during sleep, some which can be helpful while others are a bit frightening.
Some of these things include;
Paralysis. Have you ever felt like a huge elephant is sitting on you and none of your muscles can move? At such a time, you try to stretch your hands, legs and every other part of your body but nothing happens and you get scared to death. Well, although this is frightening, sleep experts say it is just a temporary paralysis and it's completely harmless.
You create stories. Your muscles might be dead asleep but your mind is not. Instead, your mind is busy creating stories that turn out to be dreams. This happens during the Rapid Eye Movement stage(REM) when according to sleep experts, your eyes dart from one place to the other hence the images seen during sleep.
Growth. You must have heard people saying that a baby who sleeps well grows more and this is so true. Growth happens to everybody including adults and it best happens during sleep when the human growth hormone is released.
Throat constriction. When sleeping, your muscles relax and your throat narrows. When the throat is too narrow, you snore!
Sleep sex. This is whereby you dream of having sex and some people only wake up in the mid of the act. A study done by the University Health Network in Toronto revealed that 8% of patients in an institution with more than 800 sleep disorder patients suffered from sexsomnia. This is whereby someone initiates sex while asleep.