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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."

3 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 Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Rub one out and it'll help you sleep.

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  2. 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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