Asleep yet not asleep

Asleep yet not asleep

You are asleep but not really asleep,what do you think this even means?
There are many things which we are unaware of and this is one of these many things.
So what happens when a person is asleep? Are the actually sleeping? What goes on when people are sleeping? How does our sleep cycle actually work?
When a person sleeps, his sleeping period has two phases alternately with duration in the ratio of 2:1.
So even if you are fast asleep I.e in a deep sleep even though the mind has complete rest, there will be rapid periodic motion of the eyes which is so called rapid eye movement sleep. Dreams are during this period. And even drooling may occur which indicates a much deeper sleep/intense sleep.
So we have two stages of sleep-REM(Rapid eye movement)sleep and NREM(non-rapid eye movement).
REM is phasic or intermittent sleep that occurs in cycles of about 90-120 minutes throughout the night, and it accounts for up to 20-25% of total sleep time in adult humans and the proportion decreases with age .
For example: A newborn baby may spend 80% of total sleep time in the REM stage. REM sleep dominates the latter half of the sleep period, especially the hours before waking up.
REM sleep has been termed the “paradoxical sleep”. The brain’s oxygen consumption, reflecting its energy consumption, is also very high during this period.
Breathing becomes more rapid and irregular during REM sleep than during non-REM sleep, and the heart rate and blood pressure also increase to near waking levels. Core temperature is not well regulated during this time. Sexual arousal is also common during REM sleep and the male penis and female clitoris become aroused and erect for substantial periods during this sleep stage, regardless of whether or not any dreams are of an erotic nature.
This is why even though we are asleep, we are really not.

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