Sleep: The secret to sleeping well and waking refreshed. Prof. Idzikowski Chris

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       During REM sleep your brain is as active as when you are awake.

      Dreaming through the ages

      Dreaming has intrigued and fascinated people for thousands of years before the works of Sigmund Freud, and many of the world’s greatest civilizations and religions have used dreams to guide their everyday lives. Let us look at some of the most famous examples below.

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       An ancient Hindu tale that is still relevant today describes three states of mind: the state of wakefulness (vaiswanara), when a person perceives ‘what is presented to them by their senses’, the state of dreaming sleep (taijasa) ‘which can reflect in the mind what has happened in a person’s past’, and the state of dreamless sleep (prajna) when ‘the veil of unconsciousness envelops thought and knowledge, and the subtle impressions of the mind apparently vanish’.

      The ancient Egyptians

      By around 2000 bc, the ancient Egyptians were already transcribing their dreams on to papyrus. Egyptians believed that dreams brought messages from the gods and that dreaming was the best way of attaining divine revelation. They developed methods for inducing or incubating dreams, including building sanctuaries that had special beds for dreaming.

      The ancient Greeks

      Sanctuaries and shrines for promoting dreams were also adopted by the Greeks, who in addition had specific dream rituals. Those entering the Shrine of Apollo at Delphi were required to abstain from sex, or eating meat, fish and fowl two days before. Once in the shrine, they made an animal sacrifice to the god from whom they wanted to receive the dream and would then sleep on the skin of the sacrificed animal, sometimes near the statue of the appropriate deity. The Greek god Hypnos was thought to bring sleep to mortals and his son Morpheus was said to send warnings and prophecies to those sleeping in the temples.

      The early Christians

      The Judeo-Christian tradition also used dreams as a guide to waking behaviour, most notably in the story of Jacob’s dream of the ladder going up to heaven recounted in Genesis, which was seen as a turning point in his spiritual development. Various books from the Old Testament used dreams for guidance – it was assumed that the conventional way for God to communicate with his people was through dreams. Dreams were similarly used in the New Testament; for example, in stories of the Flight into Egypt and the dream of the Magi at the birth of Christ.

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       Take it to the next level…

      • Chronotherapy 180

      • Circadian rhythm disorders 139

      • Light 38

      • Light therapy 178

      • Melatonin supplements 178

      • Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) 17

      • The work of sleep clinics 168

       Other sources

      • For professional sleep research societies, visit www.wfsrs.org

      • To read specialist journals on sleep, visit www.journalsleep.org

      • For brain basics and disorders, go to www.ninds.nih.gov or www.websciences.org/s ltbr/

      • For contemporary discussion and links on sleep, visit www.neuronic.com or read sleep blogs: scienceblogs.com/clock/

      In the first century ad, Ignatius of Antioch dreamt of angels singing alternating chants and introduced this antiphonal singing in monastic communities as a consequence. (Ignatius could possibly be described as one of the early sleep researchers as he claimed that all people dreamt and that this could be observed by their movements when asleep!) And in the fourth century, Chrysostom declared that dreams were symbolic reflections of a spiritual world.

      The early philosophers

      The early philosophers had opposing views on dreams. Plato argued that there was a world beyond the physical one and that it was possible to communicate with it through dreams, while Aristotle argued that knowledge was gained through sense and reason and that there were no divine communication pathways of communication – dreams were just the remnants of an overly stimulating wakefulness. The debate still continues…

       2 Why can’t we sleep?

      Surveys show that 95 per cent of us will suffer from sleeping problems at some point in our lives, and insomnia is cited as one of the main reasons for visits to the doctor. But what is insomnia? And, more importantly, why do we get it? All too often the answer lies within. This chapter looks at the important roles that Nature, lifestyle and environment have to play.

      All about insomnia

       Studies show that 50 per cent of us have symptoms of insomnia at any given time. We often use the word ‘insomnia’ when we miss one night’s sleep. But what does insomnia really mean?

      What is insomnia?

      In normal usage ‘insomnia’ just means not being able to sleep. The inability to sleep can be caused by literally anything. Sometimes people talk about insomnia when they have not given themselves enough time to sleep, but when considered by a sleep disorder specialist, insomnia is often just regarded as a symptom and a cause is sought, e.g. depression (see page 156). Nowadays a sleep disorder specialist may regard insomnia as a disorder in its own right with very specific sleep-related causes (see pages 127-31). The changes in the usage of the word can cause confusion (particularly when surveys are conducted). An outdated classification simply described three types:

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      • Insomnia is the most common mental health problem in the UK.

      • One in ten people will suffer from chronic insomnia at some point in their lives.

      • Transient insomnia – short-term sleeping problems (usually lasting only a few days). Often caused by one-off changes in your sleep cycle, such as long-distance travel and jet lag, or illness. This is by far the most common type, and accounts for about 75 per cent of all cases of insomnia.

      • Short-term insomnia – sleeping problems caused by a more prolonged period of stress, due to, say, financial problems or marital break-up. This can last for weeks.

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