For a person with insomnia, the nights become eternal, but so do the days. We know that sleep has a restorative function, allowing us to rest and recover from daily activities. People who suffer from a sleep disorder do not have that night’s rest and the consequences are felt during the day. Do you know how a person with insomnia works during the day?
More brain activity during the day
- According to a study from Johns Hopkins University, people with insomnia have increased brain activity during the day. A greater plasticity of the motor cortex is observed in these people, which is related to alert states and the constant processing of information. This increased brain activity, which could be considered an advantage, is a double-edged sword in relation to sleep disorders.
- Having greater brain activity implies greater difficulty in disconnecting. Spending all day processing information, projects, problems, solutions, but also worries, causes a state of alertness that is not recommended for sleep and rest. Thus, we find ourselves before a vicious circle in which this increased brain activity is presented as both a cause and a consequence of insomnia.
- But the increased brain activity, the alertness generated by insomnia is not always positive. By not achieving a good quality of sleep, our brain functions may be more activated, but they are not as efficient as after a restful sleep. In the same way, processing a large amount of information during the day is not a guarantee that we can retain it.
One day after insomnia
- The truth is that this increased brain activity related to insomnia is not of the best quality. The days become high mountains to climb after a sleepless night and much more if we are facing a problem of insomnia. Much has been said that sleep prolongs life and that is precisely because insomnia is the source of numerous ailments and diseases.
- And it is that if you do not sleep or sleep badly, you wake up tired, confused, and insecure, in a bad mood and without illusion. Not sleeping implies not regenerating the mind, it prevents that cleaning process that sleep deals with, in which it eliminates what is not necessary to make room for what is important. This is how that feeling of obfuscation occurs on days when you haven’t slept a wink.
- This increased brain activity that some studies speak of means that the brain is trying to put order among the tangle of information that we have processed but that we have not been able to order during sleep. Given the belief that hours of sleep take hours from life, one only has to see the consequences of insomnia to understand that it is an erroneous belief.
