October's Preview, Insomnia, and what happens when you sleep normally

This episode I'm giving a brief update on what I'm working on.  I'm also discussing Insomnia, and what happens in normal sleep.  Next episode will be covering Chakra blocks and insomnia.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:30

Hello, this is Charlene. So welcome back to the art of healing podcast. Uh, for this podcast, I'm going to give just a preview of things that I'd like to discuss in October on the podcast, as well as my website, healing arts health, and wellness.com. Uh, and then I'm also going to start the topic of insomnia. And we're going to start with this podcast with healthy sleep. Um, insomnia is actually one of my favorite topics to discuss, but when it comes up in the clinic, it's one of the most difficult topics to discuss. So I figure, you know, I got my podcast. I might as well get on my soap box here and provide some information about some of the basics of sleep insomnia. Um, in my next podcast, I am going to get more in depth with some integration of energy medicine and, uh, in clinical medicine, as far as particular blocks, um, blocks in the energy body or in the chakras that lead to insomnia. Um, this is a topic I actually thought of a couple of years ago, and I find that some of these relationships I've noticed actually help in both my Reiki practice and my clinical medical practice. Later this month, I'm going to be discussing major depression, the clinical diagnosis, um, and making some integration between, um, blocks in the energy body or the chakras and how that creates, um, we'll be diagnosis, major depression, and late this month, I'll be discussing, um, uh, how to strengthen your immune system, your energy body, and your immune system, and understanding how blocks there can weaken your immune system. And then, um, later I'll be giving some previews of my, um, Reiki one course that I'll be offering. So, uh, thank you so much, so much gratitude for you listening. I hope this is enjoyable. Um, and we'll get started with the topic of insomnia. So when we say insomnia, we're typically saying, you know, can't sleep. And, um, you know, when I'm in my practice and patients come in, they come in and say, why can't sleep, can't sleep. Um, so can't sleep can be broken down into, um, taking a long time to fall asleep, waking up in the middle of the night or waking up very, very early. Um, it also helps to know if any of those is accompanied with things like falling asleep in the daytime, falling asleep at inappropriate times, like during a conversation or while driving, um, along with other symptoms. But that's, um, on the clinical side, when someone says they're not sleeping, that's usually information that I'm trying to gather. Normally our brain functions throughout the day in the wake or the awake mode, your brain is designed to work in cycles. So in the morning you're fully awake and you're full functional state. Your sensory organs are fully engaged with sight and hearing touch and taste. So everything's operating. Normally your blink reflects works normally. So that's the reflex that if something comes close to your eye, you automatically blink and you have voluntary control over your motor functions. So the motor cortex, which is the part of the brain that operates, um, our muscles and helps us move. You have full conscious control over when you're fully awake in the awake brain state. Your heartbeat is governed by the Vegas nerve, which it is in sleep. Um, your breathing is working automatically just like it does when you're asleep. However, when you're awake, you can override the rate at which you breathe, which we do all the time by meditating. We slow down our breath. Um, also, um, if there's external stimuli, that would cause sort of the fear response, your breathing and heart rate will speed up. But, um, all of this does run into sort of default mode in the background when you're awake, where you don't think about it. You're an operator also when you're in the awake state, your digestive system's, uh, ready to work. Um, there's blood flow that goes to your stomach, into your small intestines. Um, and those work on the cycle of when you eat, they start to operate and otherwise when you're not eating, they go a little bit better. So I like to give that description of your brain when you're awake, because when we're talking about insomnia and poor sleep quality, it doesn't just start with, when you go to bed, some of the things that happened to you during the day time govern what happens to you at night. So before you're actually asleep or unconscious, there's a state of drowsiness or the drowsy brain, that's when you're drowsy. So in this state, you begin to register the feeling of sleepy. So, um, your blood pressure may begin to start to drop your heart rate, begins to slow down. Um, it's during the drowsy state that your, uh, ability to form new memories decreases. So this is important because if you're a drowsy and someone tells you something, or you read something very likely, you won't remember it, the electrical activity in your brain begins to change. And if it's tested on an EEG, um, there's actually measurable changes that happens when you're jogging. Um, also your eye movements will begin to change. So just like your lids feel heavy, um, there'll be sort of an automatic state that your eyes will go into that they'll start to move, um, not under your voluntary control. So that's the drowsy brain. So after being in the drowsy state, your brain enters into the next stage of sleep, uh, which is called light sleep, or sometimes known as into, so this is light sleep and it's during this stage at the electrical activity in your brain does continue to change the amount of electricity that's being generated, begins to come down. Your eyes will begin to hold steel and hold, and just one place and your breathing becomes completely automatic. So now how often you breathe is going to be under the control of your brainstem. So the brainstem is governing and also slowing it down. Um, so when you're awake, you can voluntarily hold your breath, but now what you inner light sleep, you won't do that. Or if you did, it would wake you up. If something, if you held your breath for some reason. So in light sleep, you'll have a strong urge to breathe. And it's driven by the rise in carbon dioxide in your bloodstream. Um, and studies tell us that throughout most of your sleep time, you'll spend that in the light sleep, in light sleep or into The next stage of sleep is in three sleep, which is a deeper stage of sleep, the night sleep. So it's during this age that the brain activity begins to slow even more. Um, the brain will cycle between in two and three. So delight in deep sleep several times throughout the night. And it's during this deeper sleep that you are not as responsive to breath holding. So your body will allow for your carbon dioxide levels to go higher than they would when you're awake. And this does not disrupt you or wake you up in any way. And then the next stage of sleep, which we're all somewhat familiar with is REM REM or rapid eye movement. Um, so this is the most important state that we know of as far as sleep. So it's during REM sleep, that your eyes begin to move rapidly, not under your control, back and forth. And it's during REM sleep that we believe many things like dreaming happens, um, during REM sleep. This is when you now do not have voluntary control over your muscles or your breathing. So you are in a way paralyzed. Um, there's a phenomenon that a lot of people have noticed over the years that may have happened to them in which they, um, feel that they wake up and they can't move that they're paralyzed. And, um, what's suspected of probably happening is that, um, the person may be becoming conscious during the rim episode, during the REM cycle. And when they become conscious because of the brain doing its normal shut down mode, um, they don't have control over their muscles and they perceive that they are paralyzed. So throughout the night, your brain will cycle from the lighter sleep to deep sleep. And then down to rim, sleep in the science of sleep tells us that you do this several times during the night, but what's interesting about this is depending on your body's needs, what's going on with your body. It may be during one of these transitions going from know deep sleep to rim or coming out of REM sleep that sleep is likely disrupted. And this may be why some individuals will sense that, um, they wake up at three in the morning or wake up at four in the morning, sort of that early wake up. That's always at the same time. So normal, sleep's a fairly complicated thing that your brain needs quite a bit of time to cycle through. Um, your sleep cycles, as far as when you're going to be sleepy. When it's time to wake up, um, are governed by, um, several things in your body. But the, the, we think most of this will come from the pineal gland and the hypothalamus. So in the brain, um, there are two Glens that are very deep within the brain, very small. Um, and these glands secrete hormones all the time, um, the pineal gland, which sits very deep in the brain veins, very, very small, um, that we do know some about, but like a lot of things in the human body, we don't know everything. Um, it's where the hormone melatonin is made, um, melatonin, which you see sold over the counter sold in lots of supplements is actually a hormone that, um, we actually make and melatonin's going to be secreted or produced actually a small amount all day long. So even when you're awake, you're making teeny tiny amounts of melatonin, but what helps your brain transition from the awake to the sleepy cycle is that the melatonin will begin to climb or to surge the later it gets, um, one of the triggering events to get the melatonin to start surging is that there's a decrease in the light around you, particularly your optic nerve. That's the nerve that comes from your eye and goes into your brain is perceiving less light. So that's why the link between light screens, uh, too much light stimulation can lead to disrupted sleep at night. And that's basically because you'll be suppressing your melatonin production. So, um, the pineal gland starts to make that melatonin in there, along with other changes, it gradually cycles you down into sleep. And then when it's time to wake up. So after so many cycles of going from light sleep down to Ram, and I believe it's typically about four cycles of going all the way up to a light sleep and down to REM sleep, um, a different set of glance, um, which is going to be the adrenal glands will start to activate. And what they do is start to make, um, cortisol, which is actually a stress hormone, and will actually begin to surge that in the early, early mornings and that preps your body to wake up. And when this happens, your heart rate will start to increase in your actually your blood pressure will start to go up. Um, and this surge will continue until finally, if you're not, you don't have an alarm or anything woke you up, you naturally wake up on your own. So when you're awake in the wake state, because you have conscious control over your body, your breathing tends to be more rapid or likely your heart rate is higher. Your muscles are active, of course, because you're moving around. Um, so some of the organs in your body, they work, they can do their job, but they don't work as much. So particularly things like your liver, your kidneys, and your digestive organs, your small and large intestines. So they do work when you're awake, but they've got to compete with your brain, your nervous system with your lungs, as far as blood supply demand. And, um, because of that, those organs don't get to do as much of their job is a can at night. So it's kind of interesting because at night, your kidneys, when they don't have to deal with the demands of the lungs, which are going to require an incredible amount of blood supply, then they're filtering all of your, uh, blood and get carbon dioxide out. And the oxygen in, um, at night, since respiration is slower, the kidneys actually turn on and they can start to do their job easier. They can filter out your toxins and everything much easier, which is why when we get up in the mornings, we typically have to urinate. That's a result of your kidneys getting all that time during the night to do their job very well during the day when your muscles are working normally. And especially if you go exercise or you're active, they're using oxygen making carbon dioxide. Um, but depending on how active you are, your muscles may pick up microtrauma or little damages or tiny tears. And interestingly enough, at night in when your muscles can rest and not move and actually cool down, as far as temperature, your body's able to repair those little micro tears, um, same for your joints. Um, your body can actually do some repair on your joints if you're allowed adequate with time to sleep. So, um, one of the things that people notice, um, or will complain about when they have, you know, poor quality sleep and have been doing that for awhile, that they have higher levels of pain, um, their joints and their muscles hurt more. And in fact, they really do hurt more because the body's not getting a chance to cool off, and there's no relaxation. All of these things are just staying up and even if you're laying in the bed, if you're not sleeping, um, these important repair process processes can't happen. Um, and then most importantly, the brain there's so much of neuroscience that we don't understand and understand. This is my perspective as a primary care physician. I'm not a neurologist or a neuroscientist, but, um, we know that at night, if you aren't sleeping and your brain isn't allowed to go on to these, um, cycles of Ram of deep breaths, and isn't allowed this cooling off, um, that things like memories, emotions, a lot of these things maybe don't get processed very well. Um, and a lot of the chemistry, a lot of your neurochemistry won't be at an optimal level. So it means that, you know, for several days of this, you may be more prone to anxiety. You're definitely more susceptible to stress. And after so many days to weeks of that, you're more prone to depression. Um, and of course we know that, uh, clinical symptoms of generalized anxiety and major depressive disorder, one of their symptoms are insomnia, but there's a cycle that the two go back and forth between each other, that not sleeping, sets up your brain chemistry to put you more of a fight or flight mode where you are more anxious and then being more anxious during the day means that your sleep is disrupted right at night. So, um, this explanation, that's kind of what I will attempt to explain to my patients as far, um, you know, sleep and, uh, hopefully provides a better understanding of what we hope happens when you sleep. Um, uh, naturally. So in the next podcast, I'm going to cover, um, how energy blocks so blocks in your chakras cause insomnia. And again, something that I sort of learned on my own a couple of years ago, um, once I learned what shockers were, when I did my yoga training and did my Reiki training and sure enough, finding that it correlates with, uh, clinical science. So if you'll stay tuned, um, this'll be coming up next week. I do appreciate your time with me. Uh, thank you so much for listening.