We all know why sleep is important. Sleep helps us in healing and repairing of our heart and blood vessels, and it helps our body to maintain a healthy balance of the hormones that make you feel hungry (ghrelin) or full (leptin). Sleep also aids in maintaining proper blood sugar level. Sleep is as important as the air we breathe and the water we drink. Without sleeping we cannot live. If we deprive someone from sleep, we can kill them. During the World War 2 in Germany, and even now in Russia, the most popular method of torturing prisoners was prevention of sleep. They were simply not allowed to sleep. The guards were put next to the prisoners to disturb their sleep. The Chinese would make the man stand in a cell which was so small that he could not move at all; he could neither sit nor lie down. Then they used to drip water from above which used to fall on his head, drop by drop. He could not move at all, could neither sit nor lie down, so after a maximum of twelve or sixteen or eighteen hours the man would start shouting and screaming – “I will die! Save me! Get me out of here!”
Now moving on from why sleep is necessary to importance of dreamless sleep. To comprehend the importance of dreamless sleep we will have to understand the process of sleep.
What Happens During Sleep?
In sleep natural cycles of activity take place in the brain and these natural cycles consist of two basic states: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, which consists of Stages 1 through 4. People begin the sleep cycle with a period of non-REM sleep followed by a very short period of REM sleep. Dreams generally occur in the REM stage of sleep.
What Is Non-REM Sleep?
The period of NREM sleep is made up of 4 stages. Each stage can last from 5 to 15 minutes. A completed cycle of sleep consists of a progression from stages 1-4 before REM sleep is attained, then the cycle starts over again.
· Stage 1: Polysomnography (sleep readings) shows a reduction in activity between wakefulness and stage 1 sleep. The eyes are closed during Stage 1 sleep. One can be awakened without difficulty; however, if aroused from this stage of sleep, a person may feel as if he or she has not slept.
· Stage 2: This is a period of light sleep during which polysomnographic readings show intermittent peaks and valleys, or positive and negative waves. These waves indicate spontaneous periods of muscle tone mixed with periods of muscle relaxation. The heart rate slows and the body temperature decreases. At this point, the body prepares to enter deep sleep.
· Stages 3 and 4: These are deep sleep stages, with stage 4 being more intense than Stage 3. These stages are known as slow-wave, or delta, sleep. If aroused from sleep during these stages, a person may feel disoriented for a few minutes.
During the deep stages of NREM sleep, the body repairs and regenerates tissues, builds bone and muscle, and appears to strengthen the immune system.
How to get a dream less sleep?
First, to get a dreamless sleep we should drop on our bed, close our eyes, and then remember that sleep is coming and we have to tell ourselves "I have to remain awake when the sleep comes". It is very arduous, but it helps. One day it will not happen, another day it will not happen. Persisting every day, constantly remembering that sleep is coming, and keep reminding ourselves that "I do not have to allow it without knowing. I must be aware when sleep comes. I must be able to feel how sleep takes over, I must feel how sleep takes over" One day sleep would be there, and we would still be awake. At that very moment we will become aware of our unconsciousness. Sleep will be there, but we will be awake simultaneously. A centre in us will keep knowing; although all around would have fallen asleep. When this center is knowing, dreams become impossible. Then we are asleep in a different sense, and we will be awake in the morning in a different sense.
Second, darkness is an auto-signal to your brain that it is night and time to sleep. So, we should switch off the bright artificial lights an hour or two before going to bed.
One thing needs to be understood – right sleep will be different for everybody. It will not be equal because the body has needs which are different for everyone – according to age and to many other elements. For example, when a child is in the mother’s womb, he sleeps for twenty-four hours because all his tissues are developing. He needs complete sleep; his body will develop only if he keeps on sleeping for twenty-four hours. When the child is born, he sleeps for twenty hours. His body is still growing. Then he sleeps for eighteen hours, then fourteen hours…. Slowly, slowly, as his body starts becoming mature, his sleep also gets less and less. In the end it settles at a time between six to eight hours. The sleep of an old man gets less, it becomes five hours, four hours, even three hours – because the growth of the body of an old man has stopped. He has no need of much sleep every day because now his death is coming close. If an old man sleeps as much as a child sleeps, then he cannot die, death will be difficult. For death it is necessary that sleep becomes less and less. For life it is necessary that sleep is deep. That is why an old man by and by starts sleeping less and less but a child sleeps more.
We relax partially while we are asleep, but it is not total. Even in our sleep we manipulate things. If we watch a man sleeping: we will see that he is very tensed. While if we watch a small child sleeping, he will look very relaxed. We are not relaxing even while we are asleep; we are tense, struggling , moving, fighting with something. On our face there are tensions. In dreams we may be fighting , protecting-doing the same things as when we are awake, repeating the inner drama.
In my opinion, if we know how to relax then nothing can disturb us. If we don’t know how to relax then everything will disturb us. It is not really something else that disturbs us, everything else is just an excuse. We have the tendency to get disturbed. For example while lying on the bed before sleeping we wait for someone to whatsapp us. Even if we eliminate all such causes then also we will find a way to get disturbed. Not that the world will change and things will be different, it is on us how we perceive things around us. All the things around us are soothing- and even the traffic noise becomes soothing to our ears if we are relaxed. It depends on us. It is an inner quality.
