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The Brain's Secret For Sleeping Like a Log

Posted by Soulskill on from the light-exercise-and-a-fifth-of-rum dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Why can some people sleep through anything? According to this article in Wired Science, some lucky people have an extra helping of a certain kind of brain static that essentially blocks out noise and other stimuli. These 'sleep spindles' can be detected via EEG, and show up as brief bursts of high-frequency brain waves; some people naturally produce more than others. The researchers say these spindles are produced by the thalamus, the brain region that acts as a waystation for sensory information. If the thalamus is busy producing sleep spindles, sensory information can't make it through the thalamus to the cortex, the perceptive part of the brain."

8 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Sleep by JWSmythe · · Score: 4, Insightful

        Yet, this doesn't explain why I can't sleep at 11:30pm when the house is dead quiet. {sigh}

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    1. Re:Sleep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      it's still not quiet enough, it's still not dark enough, your bed is still not comfortable enough, and so on and so forth

      insomnia's great, isn't it?

      (heh, i love how most of the first posts on this article are from people who should probably be in bed already)

    2. Re:Sleep by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yet, this doesn't explain why I can't sleep at 11:30pm when the house is dead quiet. {sigh}

      Let me know when 1:00 becomes a problem and we'll talk.

    3. Re:Sleep by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Rub one out and it'll help you sleep.

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  2. Re:Throwback? by grim4593 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not in a social environment where other people/animals are switching off being alert and acting as guards. It would make sleep more efficient.

  3. Re:I used to have trouble falling asleep by nido · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, I find masturbation can help me sleep sometimes too.

    Sex usually helps more than masturbation. If you can get it... I personally couldn't get laid until after my Osteopathic experience.

    About 3.5 years ago I had a rather intuitive insight, and pulled a proverbial needle out of a haystack. That is, the intuition suggested I do something that I hadn't ever done before. I followed the suggestion & met the girl.

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  4. Re:I used to have trouble falling asleep by nacturation · · Score: 3, Insightful

    About 3.5 years ago I had a rather intuitive insight, and pulled a proverbial needle out of a haystack. That is, the intuition suggested I do something that I hadn't ever done before. I followed the suggestion & met the girl.

    Did you trim the haystack so that she could find your needle?

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  5. Re:Binaural beat project? by Robert+Zenz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm not sure if it would work that way. As far as I know, Binaural beats are effecting the whole brain, while those spindles are very localized. So I think that binaural beats could help if they're going really low and also altering the whole brain activity that way, maybe removing those spikes would yield such an effect.