The illusion of not sleeping!

Perhaps you have had the occasional night where you felt that you slept very little, if at all. Research has shown that in these situation we actually do sleep, and sleep more than we think. But we feel awake while we are sleeping.

What does it feel like to be asleep but think you are awake? The answer is that it can feel as if you have been lying in bed awake thinking all night – thinking about trying to sleep!

Researchers have identified a peculiar but quite common form of sleep known as “sleep mentation.” In this state the individual enters a light form of sleep, usually about stage 2 of the sleep cycle. In sleep mentation the individual dreams that they are awake and trying to sleep.

The activity that has dominated perhaps the last few hours is perpetuated by the mind once the individual does sleep. If you do the same repetitive task all day you might well find that you dream about it at night, especially while you are just beginning to sleep.

If what you have been doing for the last few hours is trying to fall asleep, you might well dream of trying to fall asleep while you are actually asleep!

Sleep mentation is not limited to illusions of being asleep while awake. It also includes the so called “false awakenings” in which the individual dreams that they have awoken and begun their day, only to realise, often with surprise, that they have dreamed the beginning of their day and are still in bed.

Hence, if you feel you have had no sleep, and get up and go to work, you will often be surprised that you get through the day relatively easily. You have had more sleep than you thought.

Sleep studies have shown that individuals who claim not to have slept have actually slept, often for up to four hours of the night.

But their perception is that they have passed a fitful night of trying to sleep in which they slept very little if at all.

If lying awake trying to sleep feels frustratingly familiar, then next time it happens remind yourself that you probably are drifting in and out of stage one and stage two sleep, and that you are picking up sleep along the way.

This will help you to relax, and stand more chance of falling into the deeper phases of the sleep cycle.