Image copyright Thinkstock
There’s nothing like your own bed to sleep well. People have always said and now science has verified. Rested worse when we do it in a strange place, at least for the first night
And it has nothing to do with the quality of your mattress or fluffy be your pillow.
The answer is purely scientific and responds to how our brain reacts to what it considers a “hazard alert” .
And it all happens in the left hemisphere of the brain, which in these circumstances remains “vigilant” state.
the hemisphere guardian
Indeed , according to a new study from Brown University in Rhode Island, USA, that side of the brain remains more attentive to the sound when we sleep and somehow more “awake”.
But this asymmetry, also own marine animals and some birds-only happens during the first night in new places.
It is known as “effect of the first night” , and is a phenomenon that lose sleep both those who suffer it and those who study human rest.
“ the dream will is noticeably worse during the first night in a hotel or in a sleep laboratory (where researchers conduct their experiments),” explained the authors of the study, published in the journal Current Biology .
a dream not so deep
“in Japan there an expression that says if you change your pillow, you can not sleep, we all know that not sleep well in new places, “said Yuka Sasaki, coauthor of research and specialist in cognitive linguistics and psychological sciences
Sasaki investigated the question with a team led by another specialist in this field, Masako Tamaki, lead author of the study.
And for the first once they were able to show why and how this phenomenon occurs.
Maybe we can disconnect somehow that function of “night watchman”
Yuka Sasaki, Brown University
to do this, conducted three experiments, using several methods to measure brain activity for two nights sleep.
they found that, consistently, during the first night “a certain area of the left hemisphere remains more active than the right, especially for a phase of deep sleep known as slow-wave sleep greater vigil and faster awakening. “
When the researchers stimulated the left hemisphere (with irregular beeps in the right ear) one took place” “than when playing sounds in the left ear (which stimulate the right hemisphere).
on the second night of sleep, they explained, there was no significant difference between the response of both hemispheres.
The results were analyzed using technologies such as EEGs and MRIs.
Vigilante alone?
For Sasaki, however, these findings “do not answer all questions about the effect of the first night.”
One of the issues to be further explored is whether the left hemisphere is kept awake all night or if “works taking turns with the right hemisphere “said the specialist.
“ It is also unclear whether this area of the brain works as a ‘vigilante solo’ , some studies believe that is responsible for that we dream area awake during the day, and tends to keep running when other parts of the brain are fairly inactive, “he said.
But maybe all is not lost, as a good rest is concerned.
“human brains are very flexible. it is possible that those who sleep often in new places do not necessarily have a lack of sleep regularly ” he said.
according to the scientist, there is the possibility that we disconnect somehow that function ‘ “night watchman” .
the question is whether we are really capable of doing or whether evil we weigh, we will continue longing for our bed every time we sleep for the first time in others.
No comments:
Post a Comment