Sleeping is such a normal part of our lives that it can be easy to forget how weird the concept is. If you remove yourself from the situation and consider it objectively, sleep is a very strange thing. To prove it to you, we've broken down 15 of the weirdest things that happen to you and your body when you're asleep. You might be surprised to find out some of these bizarre sleeping quirks!
You know that feeling when you're asleep and something suddenly 'jolts' you--and before you know it you're awake. It feels like you're falling and have just caught yourself, and this is completely normal. It's called a hypnic jerk and while annoying, is nothing to fear.
We often don't think about what happens to our eyes when we're asleep, after all, they're tucked safely behind our eyelids. However, when we sleep our eyes actually move around an dart back and forth during a normal sleep cycle.
You read that right, when you're asleep your body is in a constant state of producing growth hormones that help your muscles and aid your tissues in repairing themselves while you rest. Since the glucose level in your blood is lowest when you're asleep, this is the time when most hormone production occurs.
This one is scarier than it sounds, but when you're asleep your throat muscles tend to relax which causes the airway in your throat to become more narrow. This is not harmful at all but can cause snoring--much to the dismay of the people who sleep near you.
Some people suffer from such severe teeth grinding that they have to wear a grind guard to prevent their teeth from being damaged while they're asleep. Often this can be attributed to stress, but there is no clear cause of teeth grinding.
The role of your kidney is to filter out harmful toxins from your bloodstream and convert the excess into urine. Sleeping makes this process less active, as your body obviously produces less urine while you're asleep--which is why you shouldn't have to wake up to pee so often.
Sleepwalking is a real thing that happens to many people every night. Instead of staying put in your bed like you're supposed to, your body takes charge and marches you everywhere and anywhere. While you look like a zombie doing this, it's actually relatively normal.
Similar to sleepwalking, this is a kind of common predicament. Some people happen to be chatty sleepers, and if the issue persists you can get help at a sleep clinic. For the most part though, as long as you try not to anger anyone while you're asleep, you should be fine.
While you're in the REM stage of sleep, your body releases instructions to your muscle that temporarily paralyze you. The intent is to stop you from walking around while you're asleep, but this can have some interesting effects. Some people report experiencing 'sleep paralysis' due to waking up in this state.
When you're asleep, both men and women alike get turned on due to the body testing different receptors in order to make sure you're not in a coma! That's right, you get turned on when you're asleep as a way of your body making sure that it will be able to wake up.
it can be easy to forget how weird the concept of dreaming is, since it is such a normal part of our day to night lives. Still though, dreaming is pretty bizarre and can seem extremely real while we're experiencing it.
That's right, technology has such a subconscious demand on our lives that much in the same way we can sleep walk or sleep talk, it is possible to text while almost completely asleep. Talk about being plugged in! How bizarre!
Hear us out for a second. There is an actual phenomenon that involves people hearing what they report sounds like a crash or a bang or even like a gun being fired while they're asleep! It can be very scary, but is completely harmless otherwise.
Sleeping is vital as it allows our body to replenish our resources. Our muscles repair themselves, our body functions are given a break and we wake up revitalized. When you're younger, and when you're an adult, most of your growth happens while you're asleep.
While your sense of smell is extremely important and useful in your day to day life, it is almost non-existent when you're asleep. Your body might not even be able to smell dangerous fumes or smoke while you're asleep, hence the importance of smoke alarms.
