Posters Question

I wanted to post this comment that I read today about sleep paralysis. I found it very interesting and I tried to answer the question asked:

Question:
nice post - I never thought about SP in regards to the terrible biochemical combination of intense fear and muscle paralysis. it’s a rough place for consciousness! I’m reading Hufford’s classic right now and the accounts are fascinating. do you have any ideas about the phenomenon of the “stranger” (that sometimes accompanied the experience of SP) in terms of brain activity?

Ryan,
Sleep paralysis has been a long time been something that I have researched since I used to have it affect my life. The stranger you asked about I believe (if were thinking of the same thing) has been referenced by some people in the lucid dreaming community as the dweller. It seems to be the occurrence of a type of thing that exists in the dream that sometimes tries to scare the dreamer. At time this “dweller” has even been known to have long conversations with people of why it tries to scare people once the dreamer shows their inability to be scared by the object. I remember one account where someone ones reported that after having the conversation with the dweller, another dweller entered the room and explained to the other that it was time to go. Interesting enough I see the same references during psychedelic uses in the way they describe some of the “guides” that are experienced during some drug trips.

In trying to understand the brain chemistry that is causing this dweller effect, the easiest explanation that was explained in many of the books I have read about the processes of sleep, is that during the transitional phases between NREM and REM sleep the subconscious dominate. If by some chance there is a hiccup in this process (which is normally the case) the subconscious could become aware of the conscious mind and it causes an interaction. The amygdala being over active at this time and I believe a good explanation of why fear is the most referenced the interaction between the two. Psychedelic drugs could also cause a type of lucid state during the trip experience and cause the same type of interaction between the subconscious and conscious just on a larger scale. The relationship presented by Dr. Strassman and his work on DMT shows that the dream state and alteration of consciousness during sleep could very well be more psychedelic then we currently believe, and would explain more why the dweller effect happened in both cases.

I would be glad to hear more about what you have been reading, feel free to post your comments and ill try to get post more.

Sleep Paralysis

I wanted to post some helpful questions and answers that I continually see on the internet to specific problems with sleep. I have posted many answers to questions on yahoo questions and answers but I wanted to write up some generic answers for specific disorders.

Sleep Paralysis

History of sleep paralysis

If you look back into the history of sleep paralysis you will find that many of the old stories of demon possession. This same event of sleep paralysis is also the reason we have the word nightmare as it comes the Goddess name of Mara. Mara was a type of demon that would sit on the chest of others holding them down while tormenting humans in their sleep making it so that the sleeper or dreamer could not move (paralyzed).

Paralysis and terrifying events:

Sleep paralysis often brings along with it terrifying hallucinations as based on the history is understandable. One reason that people experience anxiety based hallucinations during this period of sleep is because during the transformation phase between NREM and REM (where sleep paralysis accurse) our brains are going through a type of modulation or the shutting down and starting up of specific areas. One of these key points in our brain that is activated is the amygdala which in some research has shown to be the start to the process of dreaming itself. The amygdala is this one specific area of our brain that causes us to feel fear and anxiety and if it becomes activated to the point it does in sleep, well then you very well can have a very scary dream. The paralysis either shortly follows this process or is activated slightly before so that the body doesn’t act out its dreams. Some research has shown that this is normal process; however remembering or being fully conscious during the transition is out of the norm as our brain also shuts down a specific area of our brain that is involved with processing long term memory possibly because of the absence of serotonin during sleep.

Supporting the normal brain:

Though many doctors would never recommend vitamins or supplements to support your body in ridding any type of issue, many different supplements have shown to produce remarkable results even publishable results in the area of sleep. In the area of sleep issues, helping the brain transition between non-REM and REM. 5-HTP, niacin, and choline salts, are all supplements that are precursors into producing specific neurotransmitters involved in sleep however it is recommended that you consult a doctor before taking any supplements. If you are unwilling to take supplements to help you sleep, it is a good idea to visit a doctor in order to get medication that will help produce better sleep.

Question of the week: “Sleep paralysis night terrors about angels vs demons?”

Question:

I’ve had 2 “night terror” type incidents in the past 6 months, where I’ve been half awake and aware of my surroundings but totally paralyzed. This is, obviously, terrifying. But the weird thing is both incidents have involved good vs. bad, or angels vs. demons. The first was 2 loud voices talking in each ear talking about stealing something, one good, one bad, kind of like the angel/devil on shoulder metaphor you see in films. And the other was after a dream about angels and demons fighting, and then during my sleep paralysis I imagined a demon-like creature approaching me. In both incidents, the “bad” has seemed to win or have the last say. Is this significant in any way?

Answer:

Unfortunately I think that you have experienced something that is common in a lot of religious circles when dealing with sleep paralysis. If you look back into the history of sleep paralysis you will find that many of the old stories of demon possession ties into this. This same event is also the cause for the word “nightmare” comes from the name Mara as it was a type of demon that would sit on the chest of others holding them down while tormenting them.

One reason that people experience anxiety based hallucinations during this period of sleep is because during the transformation phase between NREM and REM (where sleep paralysis accurse) our brains are going through a type of modulation or the shutting down and starting up of specific areas. One of these key points in our brain that is activated is the amygdala which in some research has shown to be the start to the process of dreaming itself. The amygdala is this one specific area of our brain that causes us to feel fear and anxiety and if it becomes activated to the point it does in sleep, well then you very well can have a very scary dream. The paralysis either shortly follows this process or is activated slightly before so that the body doesn’t act out its dreams. Some research has shown that this is normal process; however remembering or being fully conscious during the transition is out of the norm.

Researchers still do not know why we dream or even how we dream, though they are continuing to research the area and understand more. It is important to not take our dreams too serious but also to not over look them, as they may have some underlying information of what we want, or how we perceive things. In a short answer your dreams may have meaning but no one can answer that question for you but yourself.

-L

Question of The Week: “I feel like I stop breathing during sleep paralysis!?”

Question:

I have recently started experimenting with lucid dreaming and I really wand to try the WILD technique, but I get freaked out when my body becomes paralyzed. It feels like I can’t breath, do I really stop breathing or should I just let it take over and relax?

Answer:

Unfortunately there is no way to 100% positively confirm that you don’t stop breathing unless you were in a sleep lab and they were able to watch you sleep. I have noticed from many people’s reports as well as my own experiences that the experience of a WILD has you experience a lot of events that are not really happening.

Unless you have had sleep problems in the past where you have had sleep apnea (stop breathing while sleeping) then you may just be experiencing the paralysis effect making it seem that you stopped breathing. During sleep paralysis our lower body is unable to move due to your brainstem actively inhibiting your interior horned cells. These cells fortunately do not control breathing, or we would die while we sleep as this paralysis is a natural condition. Since we are unable to move, or feel (except in extreme cases) the outside world during REM and stage 2 NREM, you may be experiencing this absence of feeling of your body move in relation to your breathing, therefore thinking that you are not breathing. Many people also experience falling through their bed or floating due to loss of spatial perception in reaction to the deactivation of specific parts of your brain.

If you truly have concern about if you are not breathing during your sleep (WILD or not) you should visit a doctor that can monitor you at a sleep lab. If you think that it’s not an issue, experience the sleep paralysis and follow through and your body will react as necessary.

-L

Question of the week: “I have problems sleeping. Can anyone give me tips on going to sleep earlier?”

I know its been a bit since I last posted really much of anything, but I would have to say that school has been keeping me busy. Spring break was good, got a lot of sleep and had some interesting incites to life and sleep. Some of those things I have already posted about and some of those things I don’t think fall into the research area where I want this blog to stay. I will though continue onto the research side of things as I continue out the semester here at college as well as during the summer as my study has been extended out to then. After that I will continue with the blog as I have noticed a great deal of people taking interest in what is posted here, but I do encourage more e-mailed questions or feedback in the comments section if possible.

Every week I try to answer one question about sleep on the Yahoo Questions and Answers and I have noticed a common trend in the questions being asked. The main ones I see are about the inability to sleep well or at all. In this question I address the concept that bad sleep is based on a uneducated culture into the concept that sleep is important, and that we need to know how to support our bodies in order to get quality sleep. I think this has been overlooked in the education system today and should be addressed if we want to continue living life at its fullest. In this question I address the idea of how to support the brainstem on getting to the sleep mode, but nothing about the quality of sleep. To read more about that you can read the past posts I have made as I address those ideas.

Question:

“I have problems sleeping. Can anyone give me tips on going to sleep earlier?
I’m tired of always sleeping really late. Its hard for me to go to sleep so please give me some tips on going to bed early :)”

Answer:

“I recently have had the same problem that you speak of and really the answer can be simple or complex based on a number of factors.
Much of the current sleep issue that people experience is based on not being educated in the reasons and processes that are taking place while we transition from waking to sleep. Those processes are composed of a combination of chemical and biological events that produce sleepiness and eventually REM. Understanding what is required in order to transfer from waking and sleep will help you either find out your problem or fix the issue.

Chemical-
During our transition from waking to sleep we experience a number of chemical changes in our brain.

Melatonin
Melatonin is one of the key components that support our bodies to fall asleep (histamines are also sleep inducing chemicals but I wont go into that right now). Melatonin is a sleep inducing agent but is not the only reason why we sleep and is produced when light is absent. This means that if there is light in your room and you can see it through your eyelids, your melatonin production will be reduced. Your body may as well be lacking in its melatonin production, but I do not suggest like many people to take melatonin supplements as it seems to be a fix to a deeper issue. If you do take melatonin supplements, chances are your problem will persist once you are off of the supplements and require you to keep taking them. A precursor to melatonin is serotonin.

Serotonin
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that not only affects our sleep process but many other daily bodily functions as well as mood. Many depressed patients take medication that supports either the production of serotonin or the reduction in the breakdown of serotonin. Serotonin also plays a large part in our sleep process as well as the transition of NREM (Non-REM) to REM (Random Eye Movement) supporting our bodies in a good night sleep after we are asleep. Foods that contain larger amounts of precursors to serotonin (cheeses, turkey, beans, peas, fruit, vegetables, or any type of tryptophan type food) will help promote higher serotonin levels. It is not suggested that you eat these before going to bed, as it will help keep you awake (I know sounds odd as turkey is said to make you sleepy), but during the day so that your body can build up its serotonin levels and promote production of melatonin during the night. The amount of serotonin that enters your brain as useful serotonin is contrary what is called an MAO which stops serotonin from either entering your brain, or being useful in the brain. MAO’s protect us from having too much serotonin or other types of neurotransmitters and dangerous chemicals to our body, so don’t go and take a bunch of MAOI’s. Sometimes people use a mild MAOI such as Saint Johns Wort (a supplement), nicotine, and coffee. Eating healthy foods that are not dangerous is one of the best ways of lowering your MAOs in your system as they are not required to protect yourself. Also many people that drink coffee counter act the sleep helping agent in the coffee as caffeine increases many different types of chemicals in our body, besides melatonin since we are not asleep when we drink it. A good idea would be to drink a little bit of coffee.

Biological-
The brainstem is the control center of our sleep. It is what drops our core body temperature when we are getting ready to sleep, it keeps track of time with our circadian rhythm, and paralysis us so we don’t move around while we dream. Supporting this mechanism in our brain can be one of the best ways in inducing sleep. This means go to bed at the same time every night, wake up at the same time every day, don’t sleep during the day, and relax when you lay down. The reason I say all those things is because your brainstem acts as a time keeper, and if our times we wake up and go to sleep are all random, our brainstem acts as if we have jet lag every night. Relaxing helps with this process as our brainstem knows it’s now time to sleep, now that we are not active and moving around.

There are many other things that you can do that can help you with sleeping. Supporting a better mood and not stressing out is a huge factor as stated before because it effects serotonin levels, that is why many people have issues sleeping in economic troubling times… they are depressed or chemically have smaller amounts of serotonin or too much MAOs.”

-L

Question of The Week: “I can’t tell if I’m sleeping or dreaming.”

Question:

“I can never tell if I’m sleeping or not. I still hear things going on. My heart rate goes up. I once had a dream someone was trying to hurt my mom and I got a lamp to throw, but I didn’t know if I was sleeping. What is this?”

Answer:

“What you are describing is the transitional phase between NREM (non-rapid eye movement) and REM (rapid eye movement). During this transition your body is paralyzed as well as different parts of your brain become demodulated or deactivated as well as activated. This deactivation and activation is one of the theorized reasons why we dream. One of the areas of your brain that becomes activated is the amygdala an area of the brain that deals with anxiety and fear. This could explain for your vivid hallucinations of fearful events. Also during this transition the prefrontal cortex part of our brain is demodulated which makes it hard to process new memories into long term memory. This makes it hard to remember our dreams. Many other areas of our brain are involved in this transition, but in this case don’t seem to be as important.

What seems to be your problem is that if we are somehow conscious enough to remember this transition from NREM to REM we sometimes experience traumatic events such as paralysis or auditory and visual hallucinations. These hallucinations are considered dreams just as they appear in REM but are in NREM and remembered because of the absence of prefrontal cortex demodulation. The ability to dream in NREM is quite normal as 25% of our dreams are experienced during this phase of sleep, but your ability to remember them is not. This same type of event is experienced in patients that have REM behavior disorder (RBD) or sometimes called night terrors, but they have an absence of the paralysis aspect of the transition and act out their dreams.

As these dreams seem to be bothering you, it seems that they may have started to be remembered the event recently. Different foods as well as stress levels can have a profound effect on our sleep and either help or disrupt this transitional phase. Eating healthy, exercising, taking supplements that support the production of serotonin can all be healthy ways of supporting your sleep. There could however be underlying problems such as tumors that are effect different areas of the brain to cause these types of problems.

I would suggest visiting a doctor as problems with sleep seem to be indicators of possible serious deficiencies. Have them check magnesium levels and other possible areas for problems. Also start working out more and eating better as your symptoms may start going away shortly after.”

-L

The Dream Drugstore, Dr. J. Allen Hobson

Another book down…

The dream drugstore was an enjoyable book, not in the sense that it was a wonderful flowing read that anyone would like to read. Instead it was full of complicated concepts that I had a really hard time in understanding, and some hypothesis that I had learned to agree with. Dr. Allen Hobson, someone who I would call a huge help to the sleep community and a never ending pit of knowledge, wrote this wonderful book in educating others who already seem to have a grasp on the brain and its chemical makeup.

I can honestly say that I grew a great deal when reading this book, as many of you have maybe noticed in my writing and understanding of the brain and its neuro-chemical activation of what we call sleep. I have formulated my own hypotheses based off of Hobson’s work and have come to the fact that what I know about sleep has been truly minuscule to the amount of wealthy knowledge out there.
I highly suggest anyone who is interesting in sleep and needs a non-Freudian explanation for the reasons we dream, as Dr. Hobson provides. I strongly support Hobson in his views of Activation-synthesis theory and it’s only because of this book and the facts of research do I truly understand that our brains are wonderful factory of useful drugs.

Feel free to read some of the book on Google at:
http://www.google.com/books?id=8wTaaUq326AC&dq=the+dream+drugstore&printsec=frontcover&source=bn

-L

Question of the Week: I Can’t Sleep Ever!

Question:

“I can’t sleep ever! I actually took a sleeping pill the other night and it made me really? It made me really tired, so I laid down and just closed my eyes without sleeping for 3 hours! i go to bed every night at around 2/3 because of this, but i have to work most mornings from 7-4. I’m only ever getting like 4 hours of sleep. It is really affecting my weight and i recently started breaking out badly. I know its bad for me, but i can’t sleep!”

Answer:

“Sleep is a complicated thing. Apparently over one quarter of Americans have the same problem and take sleeping pills as well. This dilemma is partly because we as Americans don’t respect the importance of our sleep and want a fast and effective way of fixing a problem. Sleeping pills are not a long term solution.

To help you with your problem it may be a lack of education into what causes you to sleep. I’ll try to give you some information, tips, and hopefully a possible solution.

Circadian Rhythm:
You body goes in a 24 hour rhythm controlled by your brainstem that controls heart beat, body temperature, a lot of other things, and sleep. Most importantly to you it controls our sleep by the modulation of body temperature. This is why you feel hot at night and cold in the morning or if you stay up for too long you may feel different temperatures. Your body feels hot at night because when you’re your body is ready to go to sleep it starts to lower your core temperature and uses your body as a type of radiator in order to release that heat. The same thing is in the morning; your body temperature may be cold as your core temperature is trying to heat up.

You may want to try lowering the temperature of your room at night and heat it up in the morning. This will allow for your body to release that extra heat easier and to help it into that comfortable stage. Also make sure to go to bed at the same time every night. This will help your body to adjust when it should go to bed.

Melatonin:
Melatonin is a natural hormone that is created inside of your pineal gland during the night. It is controlled by the amount of light that enters your eyes, so when you close your eyes the production starts; when you open your eyes it stops. Melatonin is a very potent sleep aid because it is one of the main reasons our body temperature lowers as well as it having other sleep properties. The production of melatonin naturally requires precursors (stuff that is turned into melatonin), a neurotransmitter called serotonin. Serotonin has many different precursors as well found in many different kinds of foods, but unfortunately many foods that we eat today are low in these precursors. Many people will agree with me that malnutrition is one of the main causes of sleep deprivation today. Not only does malnutrition cause sleep disorders but it also supports the cause of many mood disorders. Many psychologists will give people medication that deals directly in either raising the amount of serotonin in the brain, or helping reduce the breakdown of serotonin to ultimately have more.

The only way to get these precursors to serotonin is to eat healthier or take supplements that are precursors to serotonin. This would help in the production of melatonin and help you sleep, however it’s hard to tell you if you are deficient in serotonin unless you go to a doctor. Also I do not recommend taking melatonin supplements since not much research has been done on the possible build up of melatonin in the brain. I always recommend the more natural way if anything. Also since light is a huge problem for the production of melatonin, make sure to turn off excess light or wear eye shades when sleeping, this will help with the production of melatonin and help you sleep.

The Cholinergic System versus the Aminergic System
According to the Activation Synthesis Hypotheses created by Dr. Hobson and McCarley, REM (an phase of sleep) is caused by the Cholinergic (REM on) and Aminergic (REM off) system. These two systems are controlled by the release of certain neurotransmitters in the PONS and cause different sleep phases. The aminergic system is made of (what I consider) the main ingredient serotonin and the Cholinergic system, acetylcholine. This balance either pushes us to sleep or keeps us away from sleep. If there is an imbalance of the neurotransmitters of serotonin or acetylcholine we either experience an absence of deep sleep (NREM) or rapid eye movement (REM).

If you have an excess amount of acetylcholine it can cause issues with you trying to sleep. You may feel energetic and unable to stop thinking about things. To help with this imbalance you can either support your system with more serotonin or help try to balance the system out with what is called an MAOI (not going to explain how this works) like Saint John’s Wort.

Before going out and buying a bunch of supplements, stressful situations during the day may also create you problems to sleep, and focusing on relaxing may help with overcoming them. You should read some books on relaxation. It’s important to know that everything in your brain is a chemical reaction and your mind has a huge amount of power to control what types of chemicals are released. We can help our mind on the problems we have with eating good and getting a good amount of exercise. Those are things that should worked on first in order to help out body before introducing medication or supplements.

From my own personal experience, I have work out intensely at least three times a week without supplements, I have changed my diet and worked out, I have changed my diet and worked out and used supplements. Of all of those, the supplements have the biggest effect of my life and sleep. I advise you to do your own research in order to understand what would work for you best.”

-L

Question of the Week: Sleep Paralysis and Bad Dreams

Question:

I looked it up and deleted my question but now I have tried to sleep 3 times tonight and each time it ends up being negative and now i really don’t want to sleep. The first time it was me pulling out of a street and i guess it was slick so we spun and almost got into some sort of accident, i was half awake and couldn’t move.
2nd time, don’t remember what I dream about but in the dream i tried to wake myself up by throwing myself against the wall (still in my room in the dream)
3rd time, don’t remember what happened but i was thrown against a wall so i could fit through a door into a bathroom, as of now I’m not going to bed seeing as its going to continue happening. I’m going to wait until my mom wakes up and talk to her.

Answer:

What you are experiencing is not really sleep paralysis per say. In sleep paralysis the person experiencing the effects are normally “awake” but unable to move while sometimes experiencing an overlay of dreams into real life (waking). What you are experiencing sounds more like a different event that really doesn’t have a name by science. Sometimes people misunderstand these symptoms and write down the wrong information, even in websites claiming to do research on the topics.

So what is wrong with you? Probably nothing is “wrong” with you. What you are experiencing is being aware while you transition from non-REM to REM sleep. This means that you are simi awake while you start to dream. During the process of normal sleep (if everything is working right), parts of your brain actually shut down, as well as different parts of your brain wake up. One of the areas of your brain that starts up is your amygdale, or the area of your brain that controls fear. If you remember this phase you may experience terrible dreams. Another part of your brain that shuts down is your long-term memory (prefrontal cortex, forebrain) and so you may not remember your dreams. The last area of your brain that I will talk about is your brainstem. The brainstem controls all these other things but it also partially paralysis our bodies so that we don’t move during sleep as well as get much input from the outside world. If you experience this phase you may not be able to move.

What you are experiencing is our bodies not always being a perfect system. Sometimes we miss a phase, or sometimes we remember events happening. All these events are normal events, but no one truly knows why they happen or why we dream. Even the most recent research still doesn’t answer some of the most basic questions about sleep.

To help you:
The best things I can tell you is to get good rest, go to bed at the same time every night, don’t sleep with any type of light in the room. Don’t eat sugar or drink coffee hours before going to bed, eat well whenever you can, and be active. All those things can have a good impact on your life as well as your sleep and sleep is very important to having a full life. If you are young, most people grow out of experiencing these things as our body becomes better at maintaining hormones and chemicals that control how we sleep. I know it’s scary because I experienced them too but with a change in diet, they have a good chance of going away.

-L

Question of the Week: Strange dreams right before sleep?

Question:

Before I fall asleep, I tend to have weird little dreams. One that happens pretty frequently (about every few months), I’ll see myself suddenly fall down the stairs and I’ll feel the Impact while I’m lying in my bed. It actually feels as if I’ve fallen down the stairs and I always open my eyes, startled. The other dream that comes to me almost every night before sleep is one in which I will suddenly start speaking complete nonsense, but everyone understands me. I’ll say something like, “Ernest Hemingway needed to make sure he had enough chickens to go to school.”

Why do I have these dreams while I am still conscious and what do they mean?

Answer:

Even if you are not fully “asleep” yet doesn’t mean you can’t dream. Many people experience what you describe before going to bed because at this time our brain is switching into different modes. During our sleep, our brain actually shuts down different areas of it as well as activates different areas. Dreams are thought to be causes by our brain trying to make sense of this action reaction. If you happen to be conscious during this transition you may experience visual, auditory, or even a combination of hallucinations until the process is completed and then you are fully “asleep”.

Sleeping is just not one process; it’s a combination of processes that take time to complete. No two brains are identical and so each person experiences different processes differently. Also our brains are continually changing, and so you many experience dreaming differently every given night.

About what your dreams mean, I would say nothing. I believe dreams that we experience are a combination of dissociation and past memory access. That theory is backed up by much of the most recent research being conducted on sleep. People who still believe dreams have meaning supported Freud who had little to no neuroscience type of background and still is unable to test his theory. In short, dreams only have the meaning we put into them, according to science.

-L