Why we may start hallucinating if we don’t get enough sleep
As we drift off into a state of sleep, sometimes we may see weird or confusing visual images.
The visions that we see as we are falling asleep are called hypnagogic images. The images that we see as we emerge from sleep are known as hypnopompic images.
Some of these images are pleasant and visually appealing. Other times they may be nightmarish or frightening. On rare occasions, these images may remain even after our eyes have opened.
The line between sleeping and waking is not as clear-cut as we think. So when a person is deprived of sleep for a period of time (and in particular deprived of REM sleep), they may start seeing these images in the course of their daily waking life.
The REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep is the part of the sleep cycle where we have vivid and intense dreams. The process of dreaming during this stage is very much like watching a movie in the way that our eyes move under our closed eyelids.
Sometimes the emotions that we may understandably experience in dream situations such as persecutory feelings or intense rage may creep into inappropriate situations in waking life, if we don’t get enough sleep. This can lead to a pattern of paranoid or aggressive behaviour.
And if, for any reason, we are totally deprived of sleep, the REM stage of brain activity starts to occur when we are awake. Then the dream images that we would normally be experiencing when we sleep, cross the line of consciousness and emerge in every day waking life.
Natural REM sleep is crucial for our emotional health and physical well-being. Many forms of sleeping medication can suppress REM sleep.
Download my ebook,Banish Insomnia Nowfor natural tips on getting the most out all stages of your sleep cycle.
Our body has a 24 hour biological clock which is created and regulated by light.
Our central body clock is located deep inside our brain and is said to be the size of a grain of rice.
There are also other body clocks in the heart, liver, kidneys, lungs and liver. But the central body clock in the brain is like the conductor of an orchestra which keeps time and instructs the rest of the body’s organs when to perform at their best.
Understanding the way that our body clock works and where it has gone wrong is one of the keys to resolving insomnia naturally.
Let’s take a look at the way our body clock operates at crucial times of the day.
Between 10 am and 12 noon (if we’ve had a good night’s sleep), we are said to be at our intellectual best. We can think more clearly. We tend to be more productive and more efficient.
But according to Professor Horne of Loughborough University, the human body is designed to have two periods of sleep a day. This is why we have what he calls a “post lunch dip”. After lunch time, our thinking processes tend to slow down and we are more prone to microsleep.
Apparently 25% of all motorway crashes in the UK are caused by microsleeps when driving. Drivers are three times more likely to fall asleep at 2pm than they are during the rush hour.
Between 6-8pm, the body temperature is at a natural high. Many of us are having a big meal at this time of the evening. However our bodies are designed to consume a big breakfast, large lunch and small supper. This is because insulin doesn’t work for us as well at night as it does earlier in the day and we deal with calories better when we eat large meals earlier in the day.
Our lifestyles are such that many of us may have no time for breakfast, grab a sandwich at lunch and then have a massive meal at night. This is more convenient for us but not conducive to good health or natural sleep.
Between 3 am and 6 am, our body temperature drops, our blood pressure is lower and our low point of metabolic activity is at 4 am. If we wake up between 3 am and 5 am, we are liable to find it more depressing than if our sleep is interrupted earlier in the night. This is because our body is at the minimum point of operation.
2 am – 4 am is the most common time of death amongst those who are ill while 3 am-5 am is apparently the best time to be born naturally for both baby and mother.
People who have to work shift patterns during 3am – 6am find that they put their bodies under enormous strain precisely because the human biological processes are at their minimum level of activity even though they are awake, alert, active and busy. Their body clock is out of sync with their lifestyle. There is a strong risk of physical and mental health problems developing amongst this group of individuals who continually have to work “the graveyard shift.”
As we can see, modern life and the human body’s clock is not always compatible. And disregarding the body clock can lead to ill health (including diabetes or cardiovascular problems) as well as insomnia.
Do you think your body clock is out-of-sync with your environment?
Do you experience jet lag symptoms even though you haven’t travelled?
Is lack of sleep affecting your moods?
Are you sensitive to the change of climate and seasons?
Find out more about your body clock and how it contributes to your mood, appetite, sleeping patterns and health by downloading new ebook: 5 Ways to Get More Sleep, Boost Your Energy and Feel Younger using the Natural Power of your Body Clock.
Some people experience short-term or transient insomnia which may last from one night to about three weeks.
Short-term insomnia may be caused by:
stress
noise
too much heat or cold in the bedroom
jet lag
change of environment
anxiety the night before an exam
distress the night after an argument
Bereavement may cause either short-term or long-term insomnia.
Chronic insomnia is usually diagnosed if a person has gone without sleep for at least a month. It can last for months or years. It is also known as primary insomnia. People are diagnosed with chronic insomnia if their difficulty in falling or staying asleep has had a major impact on their ability to function socially or professionally or has caused them emotional distress.
If you suffer from chronic insomnia, you may usually experience a racing mind, particularly at night.
This overactivity may be present, not only in your thoughts, but also in your emotions and even your nervous system. Studies have indicated that people with primary insomnia tend to have a greatly reduced amount of GABA.
GABA is a neurochemical which helps to decrease activity in many areas of the brain. GABA, a.k.a. gamma-aminobutyric acid, can be described as one of the brain’s natural tranquilizers.
Insomnia can also be a symptom of another illness such as depression, arthritis, kidney problems, heart problems, overactive thyroid or bipolar disorder. It can also be caused as side effect due to taking certain types of medication.
There are two scenarios where illness is concerned. In one situation, lack of sleep is a “by-product” or symptom of a particular illness that emerged first. If the illness is being managed, alleviated or cured, then the insomnia symptoms will ease or disappear.
However in the second situation, insomnia is the main problem in and of itself. Here the main priority is to create the right physical, mental, emotional and environmental conditions to get a healthy natural quality of sleep and also to prevent serious illness from manifesting as a result of lack of sleep.
You can read more about relaxing the mind in preparation for sleep, working with the nervous system and creating the right conditions for healthy sleep in my ebook, Banish Insomnia Now.
The solution to an insomnia condition may depend on the type of insomnia that you experience.
Some people have trouble falling asleep. Some people fall asleep easily but have problems staying asleep.
Others may wake up too early in the morning and feel as if they have had a poor or fitful quality of sleep.
Others are plagued by nightmares. Then there are some people who could sleep if they wanted to but for psychological reasons do not wish to sleep and stay up to prolong their “day”.
Sometimes your sleep problems may be caused by external conditions such as noisy neighbours, loud music, crying babies that need feeding or a sick family member that needs constant attention.
Three types of conditions are:
1. Initial Insomnia
2. Middle Insomnia
3. Terminal Insomnia
Initial insomnia is where it takes you a very long time to get sleep. In some cases, once a person with this condition manages to fall asleep, they manage to stay asleep.
Middle insomnia is sometimes also called middle-of-the-night insomnia or sleep maintenance insomnia. As the name suggests, it is when people habitually wake up in the middle of the night and are unable to get back to sleep.
Terminal insomnia is the case where a person wakes up too early in the morning and is unable to get back to sleep. If you fall into this category, you need to ascertain whether you are able to function healthily during the day with the hours of sleep that you do get. If you are physically and mentally comfortable during the day with the amount of sleep that you do get, then it may be that you are a “short sleeper”.
Sometimes people may suffer from a combination of these three types of insomnia.
Monitor your sleep patterns over a period of seven days. Note how long it takes you to fall asleep and how many times you wake up in the night or early morning.
Your ability to sleep depends on your state of mind, the kind of stimulants and foods you have been consuming throughout the day and the way that you deal with emotional stress in your everyday life. These factors will affect the point at which you fall asleep or wake up during the night.
You can read about natural remedies for insomnia when you download my ebook, Banish Insomnia Now.
We all know that when our minds are restless because we are worrying or overthinking, it keeps us awake at night. But why exactly does worrying preventing us from falling asleep?
Well, sleep is governed by the way our brain operates. When we are very worried or feverishly analysing a situation, our brain could be vibrating at up to 21 times per second. The slower our brain frequency, the easier it is for us to drift into sleep.
When we take a nap or drift into a state of light sleep, our brainwaves are pulsating at 7-14 times per second. If we want to reach a state of deep sleep, our brainwaves must only be vibrating at 4-7 cycles per second.
These brainwave frequencies are called Beta, Alpha and Theta.
When we are awake, working, studying, travelling, socialising or looking after others, our brains are operating the beta brainwave frequency, pulsating at 14-21 cycles per second. At the beta level, we are aware of time and space. When we are scared, angry or surprised, we can also remain at the beta state.
When our brainwaves are operating at the alpha brainwave frequency, (vibrating at 7-14 cycles per second) our unconscious mind begins to take over. As well as when we fall asleep, we can drift into the alpha state when we meditate or daydream. We can remain conscious at the alpha state, but we are less aware of time and space.
We reach the theta level when our brainwaves are vibrating at 4-7 cycles per second and we are in a state of deep sleep. (Advanced meditators can slow down their brainwave frequencies to 4-7 cycles per second and remain awake and conscious).
Physical healing, rejuvenation, the production of new cells and the strengthening of the immune system takes place when our brains are vibrating at the alpha and theta levels. This is why sleeping and meditation are so vital for our health – because they naturally bring our brains into a state where healing can take place.
When our brains are operating at the faster beta frequency, we are liable to be more stressed and scattered.
Our brainwaves can reach alpha or theta frequencies when we listen to relaxing music, receive a massage or a reiki treatment or when we daydream.
But as soon as we start to worry or overthink, our brainwave frequency speeds up and makes it near-impossible for us to fall asleep quickly.
You can get more information about using your brain to create the conditions for natural sleep, when you read my ebook, Banish Insomnia Now, which is available as an instant download.
85% of us consume caffeine in some form as part of our daily lives.
Many of us can’t function in the morning (or believe we can’t) unless we’ve had some coffee.
As well as in coffee, caffeine is found in energy drinks, fizzy drinks, some weight loss supplements and also in some antihistamines.
However, the caffeine we consume in our energy drinks and other products is not natural caffeine. Artificial caffeine, as found in colas and energy drinks, provides sudden stimulation, giving us too much energy too fast. Caffeine may keep us alert but it can also hamper our verbal reasoning skills.
So why does caffeine affect our mood, make us nervous or irritable and keep us awake at night?
Well, this is because it gives us a sudden increase of energy, bringing us to a high but then creating a crash and taking us down low.
Caffeine works by taking B vitamins from our organs and new cells and converting them into energy to keep us alert and energetic. We need our B vitamins to support our brain and nervous system. B vitamins also increase our metabolism and help us to maintain our our ideal weight. Plus they produce some of the chemicals in our brain that keep us positive.
When caffeine uses up our B vitamins, this can contribute to weight gain and negative mood swings, create anxiety or increase it. Anxiety is one of the factors that keeps us awake at night.
Insomnia
An elevated heart beat makes it difficult for us to enter the first stages of sleep. Caffeine can speed up our heart rate (on average about 3 beats per minute). It also raises the blood pressure which can increase the risk of diabetes or strokes.
The brain and nervous system play a crucial role in producing the sleep hormones that send us to sleep. Caffeine can interfere with this process.
It remains in our system for up to five hours. So even if you only drink coffee in the afternoon and never at night, you may still find it difficult to get to sleep.
Beverages that contain caffeine may be cultural norms. But caffeine remains a powerful addictive and mood-altering drug.
General | Chantelle | 
August 30, 2010 11:55 am | 
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