They do know that sleep is vital for health, especially for kids whose brains and bodies are still growing. Although you spend about one-third of your time sleeping, scientists don’t totally understand the purpose of sleep. There is still a lot to learn about waking up. You can use technology to track what stage of sleep you’re in and then wake you during a light stage, so you wake up feeling more refreshed. If your alarm clock goes off during a deeper stage of sleep, it takes longer for all the parts of your brain to wake up.
Mypurgatoryyears/E+ via Getty Imagesīut why do you feel more groggy on some days and not on others? When your brain is asleep, it shifts between deep and light stages. This is because it takes a few minutes to clear all the “sleepy” neurochemicals from your brain, which is why you may feel groggy when an alarm clock wakes you up. Once the RAS switch turns on, it can take some time for your whole brain and body to wake up. Signals coming from outside of your body, like the sound of an alarm clock or a parent waking you up, can also flip on your RAS. If you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, the RAS senses that signal from your body and flips a switch to wake your brain up – just like a light switch. It also keeps you awake throughout the day. The RAS can sense important information and create neurochemicals that wake up other parts of the brain.
The RAS acts like a gatekeeper or filter for your brain, making sure it doesn’t have to deal with more information than it can handle. It’s about two inches long and the width of a pencil. The RAS is a part of your brain located just above your spinal column. One of the major systems in the brain that wakes you up is called the reticular activating system, or RAS. These are called neurochemicals and are the way brain cells communicate with each other. It turns out each sleep stage is also associated with different patterns of chemicals in your brain. Dreams are interesting because you actually feel like you are conscious, but you’re not conscious in the same way you are when you’re awake. One stage of sleep, called rapid eye movement or REM sleep, is when dreams typically occur. You cycle through four different sleep stages, each of which shows up as a different pattern on the EEG.
You might think your brain is turned off – or resting – while you sleep, but it’s actually on a roller-coaster ride of activity, even if you’re not aware of it. William Taufic/The Image Bank via Getty Images
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