HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Most of the progress in understanding sleep mechanics has been made in the last 50 years. What has been learned explodes some long-standing misconceptions. One is the assumption that since many bodily functions slows down during rest; sleep is little more than a state of inactivity. By studying brain-wave patterns, medical researchers have learned that there are repeated cycles and stages of sleep. Far from being inactive, the human brain runs at high speed during certain periods of sleep. Healthful sleep involves going through these cycles four or more times every night and spending a sufficient amount of time in each cycle. A normal night’s sleep is most easily divided into 2 types: what is commonly called REM [rapid eye movement, or dream] sleep and non-REM [nondream] sleep. You can tell a person is in REM sleep when the bulge of his eyeballs can be seen rapidly moving under his eyelids. Non-REM sleep can be further divided into 4 stages. After lying down,

People in the Asia burn the midnight oil, sleeping later than most Americans and Europeans and waking up earlier, a global survey on sleep habits has found that more than 14,000 people in 28 countries were asked when they get up. In Portugal, 3 out of 4 people go to bed after midnight. Asians are the earliest out of bed, led by Indonesia, where 91 percent said they are out of bed by 7am. The Japanese sleep the least. Over 40 percent get six hours of sleep or less each night. At the other end of the list are the Australians. Not only do they have the highest number of those who go to bed before 10:00 p.m. but almost a third of the respondents there said that, on average, they get more than nine hours of sleep each night. It may be said that science is not attempting to discover the meaning or purpose of life, and this is true. However, science today has such a strong hold over the minds of many that, unless science takes a serious interest in this subject,

   Most of the progress in understanding sleep mechanics has been made in the last 50 years. What has been learned explodes some long-standing misconceptions. One is the assumption that since many bodily functions slows down during rest; sleep is little more than a state of inactivity.        By studying brain-wave patterns, medical researchers have learned that there are repeated cycles and stages of sleep. Far from being inactive, the human brain runs at high speed during certain periods of sleep. Healthful sleep involves going through these cycles four or more times every night and spending a sufficient amount of time in each cycle.          A normal night’s sleep is most easily divided into 2 types: what is commonly called REM [rapid eye movement, or dream] sleep and non-REM [nondream] sleep. You can tell a person is in REM sleep when the bulge of his eyeballs can be seen rapidly moving under his eyelids.         Non-REM sleep can be further divided into 4 sta

                                    Most of the progress in understanding sleep mechanics has been made in the last 50 years. What has been learned explodes some long-standing misconceptions. One is the assumption that since many bodily functions slows down during rest; sleep is little more than a state of inactivity.        By studying brain-wave patterns, medical researchers have learned that there are repeated cycles and stages of sleep. Far from being inactive, the human brain runs at high speed during certain periods of sleep. Healthful sleep involves going through these cycles four or more times every night and spending a sufficient amount of time in each cycle.          A normal night’s sleep is most easily divided into 2 types: what is commonly called REM [rapid eye movement, or dream] sleep and non-REM [nondream] sleep. You can tell a person is in REM sleep when the bulge of his eyeballs can be seen rapidly moving under his eyelids.         Non-REM sleep can be f

                                                                       People in the Asia burn the midnight oil, sleeping later than most Americans and Europeans and waking up earlier, a global survey on sleep habit   has found that more than 14,000 people in 28 countries were asked when they get up. In Portugal, 3 out of 4 people go to bed after midnight. Asians are the earliest out of bed, led by Indonesia, where 91 percent said they are out of bed by 7am. The Japanese sleep the least. Over 40 percent get six hours of sleep or less each night. At the other end of the list are the Australians. Not only do they have the highest number of those who go to bed before 10:00 p.m. but almost a third of the respondents there said that, on average, they get more than nine hours of sleep each night.             It may be said that science is not attempting to discover the meaning or purpose of life, and this is true. However, science today has such a strong hold over the minds of many