Problems falling asleep
Most people understand sleep problems to be simple problems falling
asleep. In fact, this means different forms of sleep disorders
(dyssomnia). Corresponding disorders can manifest themselves, in addition
to problems with falling asleep, also in abnormalities during sleep. A
good example is grinding your teeth or talking while you sleep . Sleep apnea is a particularly
dangerous sleep disorder, in which life-threatening pauses in breathing occur
during sleep. This article will tell you what other types of sleep
problems there are and how they are treated.
Interesting facts: The term dyssomnia is derived partly from Latin and partly from
Greek. The prefix dys is of Greek
origin and means "bad" while somnus is the
Latin variant of the word "sleep". The latter is also the name
of the Roman god of sleep, Somnus. Its Greek counterpart, the god Hypnos,
gave hypnosis its name. Incidentally, hypnotherapy is
a popular therapeutic measure for treating sleep disorders.
Our sleep - a mystery in itself
The investigation of sleep behavior is the subject of sleep medicine
(somnology), which despite significant advances in knowledge in recent decades
is far from over with its research into sleep . Special
structures and functional mechanisms of the brain, whose decoding has not yet
been fully completed, play a decisive role here. To this day we only know
that sleep is controlled by the so-called sleep center in the brain. This
is made up of neural structures of the central nervous system in the rear part
of the hypothalamus and the thalamus. Both sections belong to the diencephalon ( diencephalon) and
use appropriate nerve signals to regulate the day-night cycle, also knowns as
the circadian rhythm, which in turn controls the sleep-wake cycle.
Two hormones play a major role in the biochemical activation and
termination of sleep. While serotonin, as a calming hormone, has a
decisive influence on the induction of sleep, the release or lack of inhibition
of the stimulating noradrenaline leads to a state of wakefulness. The
reticular formation in the brainstem sends the hormone as a messenger substance
to the thalamus and hypothalamus in order to wake up the sleeper.
The sleep itself is maintained up
to this point of highly complex brain processes, which in the course of sleep -
similar to the switching between different radio stations, or radio
frequencies, - a change of cause brain wave pattern. A distinction is made
between the phases that occur in non-REM sleep (Non Rapid Eye Movement), in
which there are no rapid eyes movements, and REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement),
for which rapid eye movements are typical. The different phases of sleep
can be expressed in five stages, which merge into one another after the waking
state.
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Stage
I - Non-REM sleep Stage one: When you
are awake, the brain has a frequency of attention that is represented by beta
waves (14 to 30 Hertz). During rest phases, as well as during the
induction of sleep, the frequency drops in the range of alpha waves (eight to
13 Hertz). A condition that usually comes sooner or later as soon as you
relax and / or close your eyes. During the first non-REM sleep phase, the
brain changes from alpha waves to theta waves (four to seven hertz), which
reduces muscle tension and the conscious awareness of the environment slowly
disappears. A light sleep occurs as a
transition from the waking state to the twilight state. Falling asleep can
occur more frequently at this stage if the decrease in muscle tension is not
smooth enough.
§
Stage
II - Non-REM sleep Phase two: The
brain remains at the frequency of the Theta waves and thus ensures that sleep
is stabilized. This process takes up about 50 percent of total natural
sleep and is usually associated with K-complexes and sleep spindles. These
are special wave patterns, some of which exceed the theta wave range and are
sometimes due to the last stimulus perception from the environment.
§
Stage
III - Non-REM sleep Phase three: The
brain changes from light sleep to deep sleep. For this purpose, the theta
wave frequency is switched to delta waves (0.1 to four Hertz). The muscle
tension, which was already significantly reduced shortly after falling asleep,
now usually continues to decrease. In dyssomnias, which cause a lack of
relaxation of the muscle tone, however, sleep disorders such as sleepwalking or grinding teeth occur
during deep sleep . These are not infrequently the expression of an
eventful dream event that can already begin in the deep sleep phase.
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Stage
IV - Non-REM sleep phase four: Some
authors now count the fourth phase of non-REM sleep as phase three, because in
principle there is a short phase of light sleep before a second, even more
pronounced deep sleep phase takes place. Non-REM phases two and three are
repeated before the last phase of the sleep cycle, REM sleep.
§
Stage
V - REM sleep: The result of rapid eye movementsmarked sleep phase includes the
so-called dream sleep. This is where the particularly intense dream events
take place, which we usually still remember after waking up. In contrast
to the non-REM phases, the frequency of REM sleep is in the range of the beta
waves characteristic of the waking state, if not even in the range of gamma
waves (over 30 Hertz). The brain is extreme active during REM sleep, which
sleep researchers have always been fascinated by. However, since it was
still not possible to fully decipher what exactly happens during REM sleep and
the intense recovery that the body experiences in this phase is in clear
contradiction to the greatly increased brain activity, REM sleep is
occasionally also called called paradoxical sleep .
With a healthy sleep rhythm, the sleep cycle shown lasts about 90 to 110
minutes and is repeated about five to seven times, with the deep sleep phases
becoming shorter as sleep progresses, while the REM phases become
longer. It can be seen that sleep disorders not only shorten this natural
sleep rhythm, but can also completely mess it up. If you wake up while you
sleep, you have to start all over again regardless of the sleep phase you were
in before you woke up. Dyssomnias can also interfere, if not completely
prevent, the attainment of the next phase of sleep, which then reduces the
recovery achieved during sleep.
