I have trouble sleeping even under the best of circumstances – I think insomnia runs in my family – but I try not to dwell on the situation and create stress. We all need sleep, of course, but worrying about the lack of it doesn’t seem very productive.
Remember those sleepovers we enjoyed growing up? I literally never slept at most of them. I don’t mean I stayed up all night fooling around, I mean that when all my friends finally fell asleep, I was still awake.
Even on vacations with my family and later with my own family, I generally had great difficulty falling asleep in lodging other than my own bedroom, no matter how comfortable and luxurious the surroundings.
Now I’ve learned there is actually scientific proof showing why this happens. The information hasn’t changed my sleep patterns, but it has shed some light on what’s going on.
Here’s what an interesting article about the subject has to say.
The article begins by asserting that many birds and aquatic mammals, including dolphins and sea lions, sleep like this all the time.
They rest only half of their brains fully, known as unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, so that they can stay alert to potential threats while they sleep.
To test whether or not the asymmetric sleep pattern exhibited by humans sleeping in unfamiliar environments serves the same function, the researchers examined whether the lighter sleep characteristic of FNE (First Night Effect) made the sleeping human subjects more reactive to external stimuli.
To do this, the researchers asked the subjects to tap their fingers when they awoke after hearing sounds while they were sleeping. These subjects slept for two nights in the same place, and the researchers played sounds both nights.
The reaction time from a sound to a tap was significantly faster on day one than on day two. This indicates that the brain is not only more perceptive due to FNE, but that it can also actually wake up faster.
The researchers aren’t sure why FNE causes the left hemisphere of the brain to stay alert rather than the right hemisphere, but they say it may be because the hemispheres are wired differently.
The neural connections between the part of the brain in which deep sleep occurs, known as the default-mode network, and the rest of the brain are stronger in the left hemisphere.
This may make wakefulness in the left hemisphere more useful than wakefulness in the right hemisphere, as the stronger connections could produce faster responses to stimuli perceived while sleeping.
Even the comfort level of the bed doesn’t appear to matter when it comes to sleeping in a new environment.
In the study, a subjective report on discomfort was collected. According to one of the researchers, no one really indicated it was uncomfortable on the first session, but everybody showed the FNE.
The article concludes that all these results suggest that the light, asymmetric sleep we experience on the first night in a new environment is a protective mechanism in humans, just as it is in animals.
But, luckily for us, it appears that humans are able to return to sleeping deeply once we are familiar with a new location.
So while my nightly sleep patterns are still the same at least I know why I have difficulty when I’m not in my own bed!
Courtesy Yahoo Health
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