The relationship between rest and restorative activities during sleep

[우리문화신문=유용우 한의사]

1. Humans should sleep, but they don’t want to

Exploring the link between human activity and sound sleep, I discovered that ‘humans don’t want to sleep’. This is because the deep depths of human consciousness are believed to be constantly active without sleep. It seems to be caused by anxiety, the fear of being defenseless against external enemies while sleeping. People who are confident in their health and have a strong mind boldly go to sleep, but people who are not confident in their health and have a weak mind try to stay awake anyway. In this trend, the human body needs to sleep to rest and recover. Therefore, sleep can be seen as a game of flow of deep consciousness to endure without sleep and call for sleep to recover.

One of the basic requirements for a good night’s sleep is to cultivate the conviction of safety in the deepest depths of human consciousness. I can fall asleep easily only when I plant the conviction in my subconscious that my sleeping place is not a threat to my life under any circumstances and that no one in the same space harms me.

On the one hand, increasing the need for recovery is a way of inducing sleep. In other words, the need for recovery increases with return in proportion to the activity, so if possible during the day, vigorous activity is performed. Sleep can be achieved relatively easily if the activity does not cause stagnation in the mind and body and is completely tiring.

2. There are two types of sleeping patterns

① Sleep is the appearance of toilet paper when the activity switch is turned off.

We know that when we are tired and weary, the body demands sleep, and then sleepiness comes and then the switch is turned off and we fall asleep. This idea is half right, but the ease and speed of the switch being turned off depends on the body’s active ability to adapt. It is easy for healthy people to turn off the switch when they are weak and tired, but weak people often cannot fall asleep easily because they cannot turn off the switch no matter how tired they are. In this way, the sleep switch can be easily turned off when there is power, and it is difficult to turn it off when there is no power.

The activity switch doesn’t turn off, so I can’t fall asleep easily.“xtype = “picture” />

② A powerful rush to the world of sleep is the world of health

Our body’s homeostasis tries to maintain a certain state in any condition, and that is the basis for sustaining life. Therefore, we try to take a break in proportion to the activity and relax in proportion to the tension. Therefore, the demand for a good night’s sleep increases in proportion to the active activity during the day, so you can fall asleep easily and deeply. Therefore, it can be said that the image of falling asleep is the image of a healthy person plunging into the world of sound sleep. So, if you are active outside during the day, you can fall asleep easily, and if you are comfortable, you can fall asleep easily if you increase the amount of exercise body just before bedtime.

In other words, sound sleep is a state where the human body’s regulators of sleep and wakefulness are well equipped and functioning properly, and the healthier you are, the better they work.

③ Factors that promote sleep from both perspectives

Muramyl peptide (an immune enhancer), interleukin-1 (an important component of the body’s immune system), adenosine (one of the main sources of life energy), and melatonin (a substance known to induce sleep) promote sleep. In particular, melatonin, which is only released in the dark, is suppressed in the presence of light. It increases at the onset of sleep at night, peaks at dawn, and falls to the baseline level upon awakening.

3. There are two aspects to a good night’s sleep

The first aspect of sound sleep is when all cells are resting with little activity. Soon, when you enter the realm of deep sleep, cell activity is reduced by as little as 10% to as much as 50% or more, and you rest as much as the reduced activity.

The second aspect of sound sleep is that every cell is energetically active for recovery and regeneration. Our body, which is consumed and damaged during daytime activities, works furiously behind the scenes to restore it while sleeping at night. Therefore, sound sleep depends on how large the amplitude of rest and activity is inside during sleep.

① Deep sleep curve of a healthy person

A healthy person’s deep sleep world has a high level of activity during the day, and you can sleep deeply in proportion to this. In other words, it can be said that health is proportional to the amount of activity and the length of the depth of sleep. When you reach deep sleep like this, cell activity goes down and you go through the process of adequate rest and relaxation. And while you sleep, activities for recovery are actively performed. In other words, vigorous activity for recovery is performed below the boundary between sleep and activity in the picture, and rest and recovery are faithfully performed during sleep.

② Normal person’s thin sleep curve

In the case of ordinary people who do not get deep sleep, most of the activity during the day is also reduced, and even if they fall asleep, the activity of the cells is not reduced sufficiently in proportion to this. Soon, if you look at the red graph of a person who cannot sleep deeply, the amplitude will be less than the blue graph that can be seen in the deep sleep curve of a healthy person.

So, if you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t get enough rest. In addition, when activities for recovery are performed during sleep, there are cases where dreams are recognized across the border between activity and sleep, or waking up in the middle beyond the border. Soon, you dream a lot during sleep or wake up in the middle of light sleep, so you don’t have enough rest and recovery is weak, so you wake up with difficulty in the morning.

③ Powerless person’s sleep curve or deep sleep with the help of alcohol or sleeping pills

From the appearance of ordinary people’s sleep, it looks like sound sleep, but it is actually a poor sleep state. It is commonly referred to as ‘sleeping so deeply you don’t even know you’re carrying it’, which includes children sleeping so deeply they can’t even recognize it when they urinate, or adults sleeping’ n deep after drinking alcohol.

In this deep sleep, the cell activity is infinitely reduced, and the cell takes enough rest, but the cell activity for recovery is extremely low, so the fatigue and damage of the body cannot be recovered . This sleep is said to be enough sleep, but recovery during sleep is negligible, so you wake up in a tired state in the morning. This sleep occurs when normal people sleep in a state of being too tired or when insomniacs sleep with sleep inducers.