Sleep is our escape from those things that makes us tired. It is actually a requirement for survival. Sleep is our ultimate form of rest. Without sleep we don’t only lose energy and strength, we also endanger our lives. If we stay awake for 72 hours or more, we could die. During the hours when we are sleeping, the brain and all the other body activities are relaxed. But that does not mean that they have stopped working for that time being. It just means that the activities by the body are not as rigorous when it is awake. All of these are possible because of the brain – it works every day, 24 hours each.
Rapid Eye Movement (REM)
Rapid movement is one of the phases of sleep. There are several phases of sleep and all of those are called none REM or NREM sleep. REM is the phase wherein the eyeballs move in a very fast pace. And that the brain activity becomes as active as it is when the person is awake. Because of this, the body is natural to get paralyzed for that mean time. That is also the reason why most of our dreams happen during REM sleep. And most of the times we remember these dreams because of the amplified brain activity
There are times however that people experience a disorder during this phase. In REM sleep behavior disorder, the natural tendency of the body to get paralyzed will not work. So every activity that the mind will perform will be acted out by the body. This involves arm twitching, kicking, speaking, shouting and other natural body movements. Sleep walking is the worst possible effect of REM sleep behavior disorder. Although this condition does not really poses a real threat against health, it is still dangerous. This is because the body will always react to the activity of the brain. And the conscious brain does not have control. So there is a big possibility of accidents especially when sleep walking. There was even a time when a person was able to kill because of sleep walking. In the court hearing, he told the truth and was exonerated. However, the state who absolved the person did not consider sleep walking as an excuse ever again after that incident. This is because anybody could claim that they are sleep walking.
The real purpose of the REM sleep is to prevent the body from being too relaxed, because if the body gets too relaxed there is a tendency that the person will not wake up. They will be in a literal eternal slumber. REM sleep is the mind’s natural instinct to prevent the body from going into a total shut down. There may be some disorders but the process in itself is completely natural.
The usual causes of the REM sleep behavior disorder is stress and unhealthy lifestyle. Due to these kinds of things the body is prevented from doing its natural functions like the natural sleep paralysis. That means having a healthy lifestyle will not just keep us away from sickness but also from accidents.