WHAT HAPPENS IN YOUR BRAIN WHEN YOU ARE ASLEEP - A SCIENTIFIC VIEW
By: Roniya Khatwaani
Tags: Sleep, Self Improvement, Health, Writing, Physiology

Ever wondered what our brain does when we are asleep. If yes, then this is for you.

Let us start with how do we fall asleep.

Our brain is basically divided into fore, mid and hind brain. In our midbrain and pons(part of hindbrain) we have a diffuse set of nuclei known as reticular nuclei which is mainly responsible for we being awake. So whenever we are talking, walking or doing anything which requires conscious level of action these reticular nuclei are activated or excited and sending these excitatory signals all over the brain.

Now imagine you came home from a stressful day and you are lying in bed. What happens with those reticular nuclei which were awake all day long with you. The moment you lie in bed and switch off lights these reticular nuclei start to undergo inhibition process. Henceforth they stop sending excitatory signals to all the parts of brain and you fall asleep.

This is not it. There are another nuclei called raphe nuclei in pons and medulla of our hindbrain, whenever we give our body environment for sleep such as wearing a night suit, switching lights off, getting under quilt etc, these nuclei get stimulated. Raphe nuclei has connections with all parts of our brain that fore, mid and hind brain.

When they get stimulated they tend to release serotonin, a neurotransmitter which causes natural occurance of sleep.

There are many other scientific theories regarding falling asleep but this one’s so far most believed.

Now that we are asleep let us see what happens in our brain when we are asleep :

nerve cells undergo maturation

During sleep the nerve cells which forms our brain undergo maturation that is they become functionally active to perform wide range of activities our brain does. This primarily occurs in young people. A study done by maura boldrini, associate professor of neurobiology at Columbia University found that even older individuals can form new neurons in their hippocampi, a part of limbic system of our brain.

Our learning of whole day gets facilitated

Our brain tends to analyse and organise all the information we have learnt during sleep. Learning is possible due to a property of our brain called neuronal plasticity which means that all the neurons in our brain have tendency to form new connections with other neurons in our brain. During sleep this process gets facilitated and we tend to develop a more understanding of what we have learnt in a day. We also retain a lot information in our brain due to ability of neurons to make new connections with other neurons.

Waste clearance

The waste produced from our bodies gets eliminated from our body with the help of kidneys. What about the waste produced by our brain. During whole day of wakefulness, a lot of work is done by our brain cells that is neurons and as a result of that work alot of waste is produced. Clearance of this waste produced during whole day of intense neuronal activity occurs during sleep.

Conservation of metabolic energy

During sleep our body conserves a lot of energy generated by lowering the rate of metabolic machinery by 10–30%.

Cognition

Cognition means the mental process required in gaining knowledge and comprehension. It includes thinking, knowing, remembering, judging and problem solving. It includes cognitive skills such as sustained attention, divided attention, short term memory, long term memory, logical reasoning, visual and auditory processing. These all skills are improved by sleep. Hence sleep helps in cognition.

In a world full of science it’s great to know a little science behind everything.

Kudoos!