When you sleep, these are unique things your body does

What do you have in mind about sleep? Usually, if you don't wake up dying to pee or starve, a night's sleep is closely related to closed eyes, sweet dreams, and maybe… a trail of dry saliva on your cheeks. But when we are sleeping, the body actually does a lot of strange things that can make you scratch your head in amazement.

What happens to the body when we sleep?

As creepy as it might sound, don't worry - this is all normal.

1. Body temperature decreases

Just before you fall asleep, your core body temperature begins to drop. This drop in body temperature tells your brain to release melatonin, which affects your circadian rhythm (sleep-wake cycle) and tells your body it's time to sleep.

During the REM sleep stage, aka the deepest sleep stage, your body temperature can drop by up to 2 degrees. Normally your body will shiver when you are cold while you are awake, but during REM sleep, your body loses its ability to regulate temperature, and the reason for this is not yet known.

2. Heart rate, respiration, blood pressure decreases

When you're sleeping, your body doesn't need to work as hard or pump as much blood as you were awake, so this system slows down - including breathing. For people who are classified as healthy and fit, blood pressure can decrease up to 5-7 points while sleeping. Blood pressure drops at night while we are asleep to give the heart muscles and respiratory system time to rest to repair themselves.

It's especially important for people with high blood pressure to get at least seven hours of sleep a night to experience this temporary drop in blood pressure to reduce their risk of heart disease.

3. Your body is completely paralyzed

The image of being totally paralyzed was everyone's nightmare. But this is what the body is really doing when we are sleeping. During REM sleep, you won't be able to move a single muscle, except for the muscles that control your eyes and respiratory system. Its purpose is to keep you from acting out the bodily movements you are doing in dreamland - which could be dangerous to yourself or your sleeping partner next to you. This paralysis is temporary, but can last up to about 20 minutes.

4. Feel like falling

Have you ever experienced the sensation of dreaming like falling into an abyss so that it will start you to wake up in the middle of the night? You are not alone. This strange, nervous sensation is known as a hypnagogic jolt.

Usually when you dream, your body is paralyzed and doesn't move. Hypnagogic jolt is a subconscious muscle spasm that occurs while a person is asleep. But sometimes you can start dreaming before your body really "dies". The sensation of falling from the sky or falling free from space occurs because the confused body is still in the transition between waking and deep sleep.

Researchers aren't sure what causes the sensation of falling, but hypnagogic jolts are more likely to occur when you fall asleep very tired, sleep deprived, or stressed. A number of these conditions make the brain want to sleep quickly, but the body lags far behind to keep up with the speed of the brain.

5. The body starves

While we are sleeping, the body's digestive system continues to regulate levels of the hunger hormones - leptin and ghrelin. Leptin helps inhibit hunger and regulates energy balance, while ghrelin does the opposite: stimulates appetite and controls insulin release.

When we are sleep deprived, it causes the balance of the two hormones to fall apart. This is the reason why most people after sleeping late at night can be greedy for a high-calorie breakfast when they wake up in the morning.

6. You can talk, walk, or even drive while you sleep

Sleeping while walking, driving, or delirious is called the sleep disorder parasomnia. But fortunately, most cases of parasomnia are harmless. Most parasomnias occur in the third stage of sleep, aka when you are sleeping soundly, which makes it difficult for these people to wake up (but it's safe, really, to do!). Delirious or sleepwalking usually results from lack of sleep or a side effect of certain medications.

7. Sleep can fight infection

A trip to the Kapok Island has been shown to boost the immune system because while we are asleep, the body releases special proteins that help fight infection - including an agent called tumor necrosis factor which may kill certain types of tumor cells. Lack of sleep has been linked to a decrease in the number of white blood cells, which are an important part of the body's defense system.

8. Weight loss

While we are sleeping, the body loses a lot of fluid through sweat and exhales moist air when breathing at night. Indeed, this also occurs during the day, but during that active period the body is filled with food and drink, which cancels out this natural weight loss effect. To reduce your waistline, get at least seven hours of sleep each night.

9. The body gets taller

Even if your height ration is stuck, your body actually doesn't stop growing: building muscle cells after exercise to healing wounds. Now, when we are sleeping soundly, the body releases a number of growth hormones that we need throughout life, not just during growth and development.

In addition, during sleep the discs in the spine that act as a cushion between the bones rehydrate themselves and become enlarged because your body weight is no longer pressing on them like when you are standing. If your mattress is firm enough, curling up like a baby is the best position to gain height as it reduces the strain on your back.

10. You are aroused during sleep

While sleeping, it's not new for men to get an erection. The same thing also happened to women. And it's not just a result of you having a wet dream.

Your brain is more active when you are in dreamland, so it needs more oxygen - as a result, more blood will flow throughout the body (including to the genital area, which causes the penis to become erect and the clitoris to swell).

11. Often exhaust gas

During night sleep, the anal ring muscles (sphincter) become relaxed and loose due to relaxed body systems (see point 2). This is why you will fart more frequently throughout the night. Fortunately, your sense of smell also becomes less sensitive during sleep.

12. The skin will be healthier and more beautiful

Every tissue in the body is renewed faster when we are sleeping than during our awake. Likewise with skin. As long as we are busy dreaming, the skin produces more new cells and slows down the breakdown of proteins thus encouraging a greater skin regeneration process. But this effect can only be achieved through a night's sleep. The energy required for network repair is not available during the day because it is being used elsewhere.

13. The brain sharpens memory

Although the body is almost completely paralyzed during the night, the same is not true of the brain. In fact, the brain works just as actively during sleep, as when we are awake. Researchers theorize that sleep gives us time to clean up wastes in the brain that can build up and cause problems, such as the plaque that causes Alzheimer's.

On the other hand, your brain is also busy reinforcing new memories when your body is deep asleep. The brain processes all kinds of information that we get during the day and filters out unnecessary information. There may be a link between brain cells that are strengthened or weakened during sleep, depending on how much we use that part of the brain while we are awake. Important things will be strengthened in memory, while what is not important will be discarded. This is why you shouldn't actually go to sleep while you are still holding onto your emotions, if you don't want resentment to turn into resentment.