Why Some People Respond to Stress by Falling Asleep
Why Some People Respond to Stress by Falling Asleep
Fight or flight, or sleep
Elijah Wolfson Dec 26 2013, 9:05 AM ET
Last month, my wife and I found ourselves in a disagreement about whether or not our apartment was clean enough for gueststhe type of medium-sized disagreement that likely plagues all close relationships. In the midst of it, there was a lull and, feeling exhausted all of a sudden, I got up and left the living room. In the bedroom, I immediately fell face down into the sheets. The next thing I knew it was 20 minutes later and my wife was shaking me awake. I hadnt meant to fall asleep; I just felt so fatigued in that moment that there was nothing else I could do.
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Though this has happened many times before, my response to conflict still seems strange to me. After all, as everyone knows from 9th grade biology class, when faced with stressan acute threatour bodies enter fight-or-flight mode. Its supposed to be automatic: the adrenal cortex releases stress hormones to put the body on alert; the heart begins to beat more rapidly; breathing increases frequency; your metabolism starts to speed up, and oxygen-rich blood gets pumped directly to the larger muscles in the body. The point is to become energized, to prepare to face the source of the conflict head on, or, at the worst, be ready to run away, at top speed.
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But thats not what my body did. My body shut down.
I asked around, and found out that many others experience the same thing. For example, Dawn, a family counselor in Columbus, Ohio, told me that her husband Brad often starts yawning in the middle of heated discussions, and will even lie down and go right to sleep. One time their toddler son fell down the stairs (he was fine), and Brad left the room and went to bed. Brad has had this kind of stress response for all 24 years of their relationship; Dawn says shes used to it by now.
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...the same exact neural pathway that handles wakefulness (we cant even get out of bed without orexin kicking in) also handles a key aspect of our stress response.
Think about this: while narcoleptics do sometimes just nod off randomly, strong emotions are, most often, connected to onset of sleep. Its counterintuitive, but its true, says Johnson. For many narcoleptics, strong emotions associated with stress can cause a complete collapse.
Of course, this should sound familiarits not so different than what happens when Brad, LeAnna, Daniel, I, and so many others go head to head with stress. The science on this is still in its infancy, and it remains unclear exactly whats going on at a chemical level here, but there does seem to be some connection.
In the meantime, sleep doesnt seem too bad. The problem may still be there when you awake, but youll have a better understanding of it, and hopefully, a clear slate to handle it.
westerebus
(2,976 posts)cheyanne
(733 posts)In a stressful situation your body produces adrenalin and other hormones. It's like you had a close call in an accident. You may be dazed or begin to feel drowsy.
The recommendation for shock is to wrap up in a warm blanket, drink something warm with sugar and lie down.
enlightenment
(8,830 posts)you do the opposite in a stressful situation? Instead of the adrenalin rush, you experience an almost preternatural calm; see more clearly (literally), thinking and decision making is rapid-fire and accurate, etc, etc.
Then, after it's all said and done and everyone else is heaving a sigh of relief, it all hits you - or not. Sometimes there is no delayed reaction at all - sometimes just feeling snappish or very tired. That's what I do - and while I appreciate the ability to handle emergencies, I feel a bit abnormal (or Spock-ish - and I don't have pointed ears or awkward bangs).
bananas
(27,509 posts)not sure what it's called during an emergency, but it happens during things like rock climbing.
Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, this positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.[1]
According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate experience in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. To be caught in the ennui of depression or the agitation of anxiety is to be barred from flow. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task[2] although flow is also described (below) as a deep focus on nothing but the activity not even oneself or one's emotions.
Flow has many of the same characteristics as (the positive aspects of) hyperfocus. However, hyperfocus is not always described in such universally glowing terms. For examples, some cases of spending "too much" time playing video games, or of getting side-tracked and pleasurably absorbed by one aspect of an assignment or task to the detriment of the assignment in general. In some cases, hyperfocus can "grab" a person, perhaps causing him to appear unfocused or to start several projects, but complete few.
Colloquial terms for this or similar mental states include: to be in the moment, present, in the zone, on a roll, wired in, in the groove, on fire, in tune, centered, or singularly focused.
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Components of flow
Nakamura and Csíkszentmihályi identify the following six factors as encompassing an experience of flow. [3]
- intense and focused concentration on the present moment
- merging of action and awareness
- a loss of reflective self-consciousness
- a sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity
- a distortion of temporal experience, one's subjective experience of time is altered
- experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding, also referred to as autotelic experience
Those aspects can appear independently of each other, but only in combination do they constitute a so-called flow experience.
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enlightenment
(8,830 posts)it's a rewarding experience, usually. It just "is" - handy to have the ability, but don't look forward to it.
Now, if I could achieve "flow" I would enjoy that!
yurbud
(39,405 posts)have always attracted me and were a relief even before the endorphins kicked in.
TalkingDog
(9,001 posts)I think, in evolutionary terms, that is probably a more appropriate reaction to danger/stress.
My delayed reaction is buzzed, like a couple of shots of espresso and giddiness. (Adrenaline)
I find it reassuring. That if there is real and immediate danger, I can be helpful instead of a shrieking ninny.
enlightenment
(8,830 posts)I will be the calm in the storm . . . and I suppose I'd best go use that ability to break up the cat spat in the kitchen right now . . .
RainDog
(28,784 posts)wonder if this has something to do with a sleepy response.
http://www.livescience.com/40510-sleep-cleans-brain-harmful-toxins.html
The researchers investigated the flow of fluids in the brains of sleeping and awake mice. They focused on the flow within the glymphatic system, the spaces between brain cells. The glymphatic system acts much like a sewer, helping to clear out the waste products that brain cells generate during regular tasks.
Experiments revealed these interstitial spaces in the brains of sleeping or anesthetized mice were 60 percent larger than those of the brains of mice that are awake. Interstitial space takes up 14 percent of the volume of the brain of awake mice, while it makes up 23 percent of the brain of sleeping or anesthetized mice.
These changes make the brains of sleeping mice much better equipped to remove its trash. The scientists detailed their findings in the Friday (Oct. 18) issue of the journal Science.
"The brain only has limited energy at its disposal, and it appears that it must [choose] between two different functional states awake and aware, or asleep and cleaning up," Nedergaard said in a statement. "You can think of it like having a house party. You can either entertain the guests, or clean up the house, but you can't really do both at the same time."
silverweb
(16,402 posts)[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Like many people, I can get through a major or minor crisis pretty well, even to the point of seeming calm, clear, and helpful at the time, but the "crash" into deep sleep afterwards is inescapable. I had always just attributed it to a post-adrenaline reaction, but it does seem there's a lot more involved. Very interesting.
Lex
(34,108 posts)is part of it (like getting sleepy when there's a lot to be done)