What happens to your brain when you doze off?

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When you dream, your brain is almost in a mental state. Dreaming mainly comes from a stage that scientists call rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. When sleep has reached the REM state, the human eye will move very quickly and continuously to reach dreams, the body will temporarily fall into a state of muscle paralysis.

1. What happens to your brain when you dream?

Dreams take place during the time when our brain is almost in a "mental" state. Researchers have found a way to track what your mind is doing when thoughts start to wander along with the brain-sleep connection. Using an electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure brain activity while more than two dozen study participants performed routine attention tasks, the researchers identified sleep-related brain signals to the dreaming mind. They found that the participants had increased alpha brain waves in the cerebral cortex before their thoughts shifted from one topic to another. Alpha waves are slow brain rhythms with frequencies ranging from 9 to 14 cycles per second.
According to the researchers, these findings provide an electrophysiological marker for spontaneous, free thoughts. They also found that the participants had weaker brain signals called P3 in the parietal cortex when they weren't paying attention to the task at hand. The study was published and published in the Journal of the National Academy of Sciences. "For the first time, we have neurophysiological evidence that distinguishes different inner thinking patterns, allowing us to understand the types of thoughts central to human cognition and to compare healthy thinking and disordered thinking," senior author Robert Knight, professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a university press release.

2. What are the benefits of dreaming?

Dreaming mainly comes from a stage that scientists call rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. When sleep has reached the REM state, the human eye will move very quickly and continuously to reach dreams, the body will temporarily fall into a state of muscle paralysis. Even so, REM sleep still offers at least two benefits.

The first is that dreaming enhances creativity, because during REM sleep your brain starts to analyze and process all the information that you have had in your brain recently, combined with all the previous information to build into a sequence of information stored in the brain. The brain also begins to connect and analyze information about previously unresolved problems, so that you wake up the next morning with new solutions. That is also the reason that no one tells you that you should stay awake when faced with any difficult problem. Instead, people often recommend that you get a good night's sleep, then you will have enough clarity to solve the problem. We also have strong evidence that dreaming will give you intelligent ideas, not simply knowledge.
The second benefit is dozing off as a form of overnight therapy. The brain and sleep are closely related, dreams are where you can feel yourself out of difficulties, even overcoming traumatic emotions that you have experienced before. Dreams can almost always separate us from the emotional or distressing shell of our experiences that linger in our memory. A good night's sleep will help you wake up the next morning feeling more relaxed and refreshed than before you rested. Therefore, it can be said that dreams are the first solution psychologically, it is like a mild aromatic essential oil that helps to soothe the wounds after difficult experiences. However, dreams cannot heal all wounds, but you also need to prioritize yourself with adequate sleep, on time to have a clear mind and healthy body.

In short, your brain will go into a mental state when you dream. Dreaming mainly comes from a stage that scientists call rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. When sleep has reached the REM state, the human eye will move very quickly and continuously to reach dreams, the body will temporarily fall into a state of muscle paralysis. However, a dream that brings mental comfort and alertness can help you easily solve the problems you are facing. So keep yourself a good habit like sleeping on time and getting enough sleep to have a healthy and lucid body.
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Reference sources: webmd.com, healthline.com