The sleep deprived don’t have the ability to see how they are disabled by lack of sleep. Like the Dunning Kruger effect, they are limited but don’t realise it because the irony is that the faculties they’d need to understand their situation is non existent at that point.
Dreams are like waiting in a garage while your car is being repaired. It is having your mind entertained, while your body is being repaired.
One personal observation I’ve made through experience is that if my body is desperate for the toilet (70 years old, so quite a regular occurrence), I am woken up by not being able to find a toilet in my dreams. I also regularly dream of being at university, even though I never attended one because I am always seeking knowledge: straightforward symbolism in both cases.
‘I am woken up by not being able to find a toilet in my dreams.’
I really hate that dream.
Lizzie J
1 year ago
I wonder whether increasing levels of mental health issues in children is at least partially due to disrupted sleep patterns.
Andrew Richardson
1 year ago
Thank you for this excellent summary. I’m surprised though that you have not covered the work of Joe Griffin, which seems to me to be the definitive statement of the essential purpose of dreaming for our emotional health.See dreaming as an emotional flush toilet – clearing away all the cxxp of the previous day. And it is because dreaming is exhausting and all depressed people over-dream, in an attempt to clear away the rubbish, that dreaming can feed evermore depression.
This is a link to Griffin’s why we dream book.https://www.humangivens.com/publications/why-we-dream-the-definitive-answer/
James Anthony Seyforth
1 year ago
The solution in this article, that it is easy to fix sleep and mental health issues since we have sleep in mind, is not true. Much of sleep deprivation is related to the incredible noise and disruptive pollution of modern society.
I was living in an apartment near Oxford, UK in a fairly expensive high street apartment block. The post office van loading just 60 feet away from my double bay window would wake me every day at 2-4am in the morning, even on Saturday morning!!. I battled with the local council for a year to get them to stop those unbelievably noisy loadings which practically destroyed my sleep pattern during Covid lockdowns as well. All that happened was they were made to change some gates, some tarmac and “be quiet”. It barely changed but we ended up moving anyway because it was unbearable for me and I had a technical engineering job which was too demanding to be sleep deprived.
Not only that but the street lights, the neighborhood it self and traffic all is crushing our sleep because homes are poorly sound insulated, poorly ventilated for good air flow and are generally low quality, yet they cost up to 60% of your income.
The solution is fine for those who have more than adequate housing, for those that don’t we are battling basic science of sound, light and biology in getting more than 6 hours of sleep. Not everyone dies a death when their head hits the sack unfortunately.
Brett H
1 year ago
“Our ancestors slept seven to eight hours a night, beginning at around 9pm, and, except in the cooler winter months, 30 to 60 minutes each afternoon, …”
Which ancestors?
I remember reading an article about the concept of first and second sleeps during the medieval period; a chap called Roger Ekirch (I think) did some research on this. There is written references to the sleep period being divided into two and people getting up around 11p.m. or midnight for a few hours and actually doing things or reading before going back to bed for their second sleep. This is probably different from what the author is writing, but I think that it’s interesting.
ralph bell
1 year ago
Fascinating article and simple, free advice to improve mental and physical wellbeing.
Tony Lee
1 year ago
In the depths of depression I barely managed any sleep at all and when I did, my dreams were often vivid and almost kaleidoscopic images of colours and shapes – of course I was permanently exhausted day and night. During manic episodes however, I might sleep solidly (or so it seemed) for 5 or 6 hours and then awake apparently full of energy. Fortunately today I sleep for up to 8 hours, having found peace in my life through following a more spiritual non-religious lifestyle.
My experience of children (I have 4 adult sons & a daughter), is that their quality of sleep was most influenced by the preparation beforehand – eating well, no use of electronic devices or tv before bed and preferably to read to them before sleep.
The sleep deprived don’t have the ability to see how they are disabled by lack of sleep. Like the Dunning Kruger effect, they are limited but don’t realise it because the irony is that the faculties they’d need to understand their situation is non existent at that point.
Dreams are like waiting in a garage while your car is being repaired. It is having your mind entertained, while your body is being repaired.
One personal observation I’ve made through experience is that if my body is desperate for the toilet (70 years old, so quite a regular occurrence), I am woken up by not being able to find a toilet in my dreams. I also regularly dream of being at university, even though I never attended one because I am always seeking knowledge: straightforward symbolism in both cases.
‘I am woken up by not being able to find a toilet in my dreams.’
I really hate that dream.
I wonder whether increasing levels of mental health issues in children is at least partially due to disrupted sleep patterns.
Thank you for this excellent summary. I’m surprised though that you have not covered the work of Joe Griffin, which seems to me to be the definitive statement of the essential purpose of dreaming for our emotional health.See dreaming as an emotional flush toilet – clearing away all the cxxp of the previous day. And it is because dreaming is exhausting and all depressed people over-dream, in an attempt to clear away the rubbish, that dreaming can feed evermore depression.
This is a link to Griffin’s why we dream book.https://www.humangivens.com/publications/why-we-dream-the-definitive-answer/
The solution in this article, that it is easy to fix sleep and mental health issues since we have sleep in mind, is not true. Much of sleep deprivation is related to the incredible noise and disruptive pollution of modern society.
I was living in an apartment near Oxford, UK in a fairly expensive high street apartment block. The post office van loading just 60 feet away from my double bay window would wake me every day at 2-4am in the morning, even on Saturday morning!!. I battled with the local council for a year to get them to stop those unbelievably noisy loadings which practically destroyed my sleep pattern during Covid lockdowns as well. All that happened was they were made to change some gates, some tarmac and “be quiet”. It barely changed but we ended up moving anyway because it was unbearable for me and I had a technical engineering job which was too demanding to be sleep deprived.
Not only that but the street lights, the neighborhood it self and traffic all is crushing our sleep because homes are poorly sound insulated, poorly ventilated for good air flow and are generally low quality, yet they cost up to 60% of your income.
The solution is fine for those who have more than adequate housing, for those that don’t we are battling basic science of sound, light and biology in getting more than 6 hours of sleep. Not everyone dies a death when their head hits the sack unfortunately.
“Our ancestors slept seven to eight hours a night, beginning at around 9pm, and, except in the cooler winter months, 30 to 60 minutes each afternoon, …”
Which ancestors?
I remember reading an article about the concept of first and second sleeps during the medieval period; a chap called Roger Ekirch (I think) did some research on this. There is written references to the sleep period being divided into two and people getting up around 11p.m. or midnight for a few hours and actually doing things or reading before going back to bed for their second sleep. This is probably different from what the author is writing, but I think that it’s interesting.
Fascinating article and simple, free advice to improve mental and physical wellbeing.
In the depths of depression I barely managed any sleep at all and when I did, my dreams were often vivid and almost kaleidoscopic images of colours and shapes – of course I was permanently exhausted day and night. During manic episodes however, I might sleep solidly (or so it seemed) for 5 or 6 hours and then awake apparently full of energy. Fortunately today I sleep for up to 8 hours, having found peace in my life through following a more spiritual non-religious lifestyle.
My experience of children (I have 4 adult sons & a daughter), is that their quality of sleep was most influenced by the preparation beforehand – eating well, no use of electronic devices or tv before bed and preferably to read to them before sleep.