What is sleep for

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

For those who do not want or do not like to watch a long video, under the video can read the main provisions of his theory in the form of an article.

Dmitry Mylnikov:

On my own behalf, I want to add that Ivan Pigarev conducted research only with animals, so he speaks only of two phases of sleep, slow and fast, while studies of sleep in humans have shown that in fact a person has several different phases of slow sleep . Most likely, some of these phases are responsible for precisely those processes of regulation of the work of internal organs, which are described in the lecture, and some for the processing of information and restructuring of neural connections in the brain. At least the fact that in humans sleep affects memory and long-term perception of information has also been confirmed experimentally.

Ivan Pigarev: Everything is amazing in a dream

Ivan Nikolaevich, how was your theory born?

A rather strange situation developed in the field of sleep research a few years ago. On the one hand, the most obvious and simplest theory of sleep, according to which sleep is required in order to give rest to the brain, has disappeared quite a long time ago. This theory existed exactly until they learned to record the activity of neurons in the brain. As soon as it became possible, it immediately became clear that during sleep, neurons in the cerebral cortex work even more actively than in the waking state. The theory was discarded.

The question immediately arose: “What then are these neurons doing during sleep?” After all, during sleep, the input of all information from the outside world is interrupted. For example, signals from the retina do not reach the areas of the cortex responsible for visual perception. There is even an active block that is responsible for blocking these signals. The same system exists for all sensory inputs. This is an indisputable fact, which is confirmed by the data of the devices. It turns out that the cerebral cortex should be "silent" during sleep. But, as I said, this does not happen. We observe strong wave activity and a certain rhythm. The reasons for this activity were completely incomprehensible.

On the other hand, when they wanted to reveal the purpose of sleep, they did very simple experiments - they deprived the animals of sleep. The result of these experiments was always the same: after several days of sleep deprivation, the animal died. Moreover, it died not because of "mental disorders", but because of diseases of internal organs incompatible with life (usually stomach ulcers, intestinal ulcers and other visceral pathologies). Of course, before the start of the experiment, there were no such diseases in animals. The same thing is observed in humans. For example, a sudden-onset stomach ulcer is often encountered by students who refuse normal sleep while preparing for exams. But back to the animals. Experiments have shown that the only organ that never suffers from sleep deprivation is the brain itself.

We had such an interesting picture at the beginning of our research.

What happened next?

We have proposed a hypothesis that has been fully confirmed over the past 20 years. What does it consist of?

We assumed that the brain (primarily the cerebral cortex) is not a highly specialized processor. It used to be thought that, for example, the visual cortex was created specifically for processing visual information and could not do anything else. This is its only function. In terms of computer technology, the brain was considered as a set of specialized computers, each of which performs only one function. As I said, we put forward the idea that the neurons of the cerebral cortex are much more versatile and can process completely different information. In much the same way as the processor of a modern computer is capable of making various calculations, independent of a specific subject area.

What, then, is the cerebral cortex doing during sleep? According to the visceral theory, during this period, the brain is busy processing not signals coming from external sensory channels (sight, smell, touch, hearing), but signals coming from internal organs. The main task that the brain solves during sleep is the task of maintaining the body's performance.

How the brain works during sleep

What tasks can be sent to the brain from internal organs? In the opinion of an amateur, everything is so well arranged there that it should work completely automatically

The construction of our body does not include the ability to receive and be aware of the sensations coming directly from the internal organs. We are not able to feel directly the surface of the stomach, the surface of the intestine, or any part of the kidney. We have no systems for this. Note that, say, the skin is structured differently. If you have a wound on your skin, then you absolutely know exactly where the damage happened (even if you don't see it).

We are simply not able with our consciousness to judge the processes that occur in our organs and, accordingly, the tasks that the cerebral cortex solves in this context.

But we do feel pain in certain organs. Is not it so?

Let's say a person tells you that they have a stomach ache. What does this mean? In fact, he is not able to determine the specific organ that is suffering from him at the moment. Why? Not at all because he is unfamiliar with anatomy. It's just that the accuracy of his sensations is limited by the phrase "stomach ache". He experiences the very subjective feeling of pain, and not painful sensations from a specific internal organ.

Today even doctors know that, as a rule, we feel pain in one place, and the real pathology is in a completely different area.

So, the brain has a certain "processing power". During wakefulness, these powers are mainly involved in processing signals from external sensory channels, and during sleep they switch to processing data from internal organs. It's like that?

Yes. All of our internal organs and tissues of the body have so-called interoreceptors (chemoreceptors, thermoreceptors, baroreceptors, etc.) that are capable of processing signals coming to them and transmitting them to the brain. For example, on the walls of the gastrointestinal tract there are a huge number of interoreceptors that send information to the brain about the chemical composition of substances inside and on the surface of the intestine, temperature, mechanical movements, and much more.

Today we are unable to accurately describe the content of this information. But we are already able to measure its volume. Research shows that it is comparable to the flow of data from the eyes. And this is just a stream of data from the gastrointestinal tract!

As far as I remember, it was previously thought that the autonomic nervous system (ANS) was responsible for processing all this information

This is true, but only for the waking state. ANS is organized (for the most part) segmentally. Each of its fragments receives information from a specific organ or part of it. And the size of the ANS does not correspond to the huge flow of information that comes from interoreceptors located in all organs of the body, including, in particular, the brain itself. Accordingly, ANS is not and cannot be a coordinating system capable of ensuring the performance of the organism as a whole. This problem can be solved jointly by the cerebral cortex and a number of subcortical formations. For example, the hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus and a number of other structures.

What then is sleepiness?

Sleepiness and fatigue are signals that a certain number of "unsolved problems" have accumulated in our body (or rather, in the internal organs) and that the power of the "central processor" must be connected to process them. In other words, we need to go into sleep mode and allow the brain to deal with the accumulated requests.

If this is not done in a timely manner, then the very pathologies that I talked about at the very beginning of our conversation may begin to arise. Remember the poor animals who died from diseases of the internal organs? Here is an explanation of the cause of their illness.

It is curious that if an animal receives some strange pathological irritation (for example, a slight electric shock on the surface of the stomach), then it immediately falls asleep. Why? So that the brain begins to deal with the cause that caused the incomprehensible messages that went along the visceral nerves to the brain in response to the inflicted impact.

Now it is clear why, when a person is sick, he is advised to sleep more. So are we giving the brain more time to recover from impaired bodily functions?

Yes. Our experiments fully confirm this. If you want to be healthy, you need to sleep properly. Then there is a chance to live at least up to 120-150 years.

About acupuncture

My Teacher said that according to the Taoist picture of the world, our emotions and even many of our actions are determined by the state of our internal organs. For example, that the “want” effort comes from the kidneys, and the “must” effort comes from the liver. Your theory allows you to understand how such patterns can be explained

Yes, in the East there have been many interesting observations about the functioning of the body. Some of these empirical findings are now being confirmed. For example, the visceral theory allows us to make an assumption about the mechanisms of operation of acupuncture points and reflexology. I will try to clarify.

When we experimentally demonstrated the responses of the cerebral cortex to stimulation of internal organs, the following question arose: “How does the entire volume of visceral information enter the cortex?” The anatomy of the pathways from the sensory channels was well known by that time. There have also been studies regarding the vagus nerve. But we clearly understood that one vagus nerve is not enough to transmit the entire array of information from internal organs. This nerve is too small. We started looking for other explanations.

It is known that nerve fibers go from various areas of the skin to the spine. Dermatologists have long drawn up a detailed diagram showing the correspondence of various parts of the body surface and the roots of the spinal cord. Later it turned out that nerve fibers from internal organs come to the spinal cord through these same roots. Moreover, all these fibers end on the same neurons in the spinal cord. They mix there and then transmit information to the brain. It turns out that the same neuron can be excited both by signals coming from the surface of the body and by signals coming from internal organs. Only, according to the visceral theory, it never happens at the same time. The sleep state acts as a switch. We have already spoken about this.

Now let's get back to acupuncture. If a person has a pathology in some internal organs, then the body does everything to accelerate the transfer of information from them to the spinal cord and brain. It lowers the sensitivity thresholds of the corresponding neurons in order to improve signal transmission. How else can you induce the body to lower these thresholds? We know that the same neurons receive signals from the skin. This means that if we start to irritate the corresponding areas of the skin, then we will get the desired response of neurons. This is what acupuncture does.

By the way, remember I told you that with any strange pathological effect, the animal falls asleep? Exactly the same effect is observed in humans when needles are inserted during a reflexology session. The person begins to doze or falls asleep. Now you yourself can explain why this is connected. The brain begins to deal with the problem (for this it needs a sleep mode) and, first of all, to request information from those organs that correspond to the skin areas "pricked" by needles.

About consciousness, subconsciousness and memory

What you have said fully explains another point characteristic of the eastern practices of self-improvement. It is known that they do a lot through meditation, i.e. through a state close enough to sleep. It turns out that meditation can be used to purposefully adjust the work of internal organs?

Yes. Although I very much doubt that it is possible to begin to actively interfere with the activities of organs. But opening up the possibility for the transmission of signals from organs to the brain, as well as giving the brain extra time to "put things in order" through meditation, is probably quite possible.

Here it is necessary to clarify what I mean by "putting things in order." It is about eliminating any discrepancies between genetically specified parameters of the functioning of an organism and its actual state.

Let's talk a little about consciousness. What it is? Where is consciousness?

It follows from the visceral theory that consciousness is definitely not associated with the cerebral cortex. After all, consciousness is active in wakefulness and turns off in sleep. And the neurons of the cortex are equally active both in wakefulness and in sleep. But the neurons in the structures of the so-called basal ganglia behave in this way. They receive signals from all parts of the cortex and are activated in wakefulness, and in sleep, the conduction of signals from the cortex to these structures is blocked and neurons become silent.

The bark is responsible for the work of the subconscious. More precisely, for the processing of that colossal array of information that we are not even aware of.

But can we confidently assert that consciousness "lives" in the brain?

The mentioned part of the brain is quite enough to ensure the work of such a stunted component of a person as consciousness. From an informational point of view, the subconscious activity of an earthworm is much more complicated than what our consciousness does with you.

But I cannot say the same about memory. Memory is completely different …

Please explain

It would be logical to assume that memory should be stored in our body or at least in the brain. The amazing thing arises when one begins to examine the brain from this point of view.

Memory properties are found literally in every cell. But it looks more like the memory that is in all our information devices - printers, scanners, etc. On the other hand, no analogue of the main storage of information, such as a hard disk or blocks of solid-state memory, responsible for storing the main array of vital and information, has not yet been found.

It is assumed that memory can be dispersed throughout the entire cortex or even throughout the entire brain. There are considerations in favor of the fact that memory can be recorded on the same DNA molecules that carry genetic information. But here the question of fast mechanisms for extracting this information remains open … So there is no answer to the question where the memory is stored yet.

It often happened that clues to physiologists were given by successes in the development of technical systems, and, first of all, successes in the field of information technology. If I were doing memory research, I would now turn my attention to cloud storage. If people have thought of the fact that it is irrational to carry large storage of information with them, and it is better to organize easy access to these storages from any place, then did the human designer really not understand the advantages of such a system?

Do you think that memory is stored outside a person?

Yes, I now fully admit it. But where exactly and how exactly it is stored, I, of course, do not know. Apparently, we need to wait for the discovery of a new material substance that would allow storing such information and providing organisms with a quick connection with this storage. I think that soon physicists will discover such a substance or such a field. Now in the study of the universe, many amazing things are revealed.

About polyphasic sleep and dreams

What do you think about polyphasic sleep practices? Let me remind readers that polyphasic (or polyphasic) is a sleep mode in which sleep is divided into a large number of periods distributed throughout the day. The person is as if sleeping "a little bit many times."

This practice might be ideal. Many animals work according to a similar model. Observe. They sleep fractionally, and not in one long period.

For a person, I would recommend not to miss the second peak of sleepiness, which occurs approximately from 14.00 to 16.00. It is very advisable to sleep during this period.

Fighting natural sleepiness is extremely harmful. After all, sleepiness means that the body has malfunctions and requires "putting things in order."

What are dreams?

I think dreaming is a form of pathology. Normally (i.e. when all neuroscience is working correctly) they shouldn't be. I can even assume that a person who never sees dreams will live 20-30 years longer.

What is the most surprising thing about the phenomenon of sleep for you?

Everything in a dream is amazing!

From the editor: To complete the picture, it will not be superfluous to familiarize yourself with the view of sleep in the framework of the interaction of the essence (soul) of a person and a biological body:

The nature of sleep

The physical body of a person is the energy foundation for the essence, its evolution. Biochemical processes occurring in the body lead to the splitting of complex organic compounds that enter the body in the form of food into simpler ones. Simple organic compounds through the blood enter all the cells of the body, where their complete breakdown is completed. As a result of complete splitting, organic molecules disintegrate into the forms of matter that form them, which begin to flow from the physical plane to other planes available to the entity.

Essence bodies accumulate their potential by absorbing forms of matter that correspond to their qualitative structure. When the concentration of the forms of matter in the bodies of the essence reaches a critical level, there is a flow of these forms of matter from the bodies of the essence to the physical plane, into the physical body of a person. There is a circulation of forms of matter between the physical body of a person and the bodies of his essence, which is, in the full sense of the word, LIFE. At the same time, the physical body creates the necessary potential for the development of the essence, its bodies.

The evolving bodies of the entity, through the streams coming from them, influence the physical body, developing it and evolving. The more actively this process proceeds, the greater the load falls on the physical body. Since the splitting of complex organic molecules in the body accumulates a huge amount of toxins, from which it can die if it does not get rid of these poisons.

The human body, like any other living organism, has its own purification system, which includes a group of organs and systems. The body is able to make maximum cleansing when new toxins and toxins that arise during splitting do not continue to enter it. Each organism has the ability to neutralize and remove from itself a certain amount of substances negative for it during the day. The daily dose of poisons neutralized in this way is individual and even for one person it changes throughout his life.

Therefore, if the body continued to work continuously, the concentration of negative substances in it would increase. And when it becomes more than the dose that the body is able to neutralize, "free" toxins would begin to destroy the body itself, very quickly rendering it unusable. Therefore, the body, all its cells must receive rest and the opportunity to get rid of toxins accumulated during active work. This happens during sleep … When an entity goes beyond the energy psi-protection of the body and is outside of its body.

At the same time, the essence, due to the potential accumulated during the active work of the physical body, opens more or less quality barriers between the levels of the planet and falls on them. Depending on the level of evolutionary development and the state of the physical body, one and the same essence can go out during sleep to different qualitative planes of the Earth - mental, astral, etheric.

If the essence for one reason or another falls on the lower astral or ether, it becomes "game" for the astral animals living on these planes. This is tantamount to the fact that a person enters the jungle, teeming with crocodiles, snakes, lions, tigers and other predators, for which a person is only food … So an entity that has fallen into the lower astral or ether becomes very desirable food for astral animals.

But if in reality, familiar to understanding, a person can hide in a car, house, or use some kind of weapon, then an entity that has fallen into the lower astral during sleep can only be saved by creating an energy protection around itself that they cannot pass through astral animals. If the entity fails, it must quickly return to its physical body, which has powerful protection. When the essence quickly returns to the physical body in a dream, a person then remembers how he fell into some bottomless, deep abyss, and often in such cases he even wakes up in a cold sweat.

Such an abrupt return of the essence to the physical body is a defensive reaction that saves the essence from death. If the entity cannot return to the body, it becomes the prey of astral predators. In this case, the so-called death in a dream occurs. They mistakenly think that this is an easy death. Often this situation leads to the death of the entity.

But what is the mechanism of sleep? What happens in this case with the human brain? The human body, its brain has two modes of functioning:

1) The wakefulness mode, in which the physical body and the bodies of the entity are in close and active interaction. In this case, the biopotentials of the brain change rapidly and often have a large amplitude of changes.

2) Sleep mode, in which the entity goes beyond the energy defenses of the body. At the same time, the activity of neurons drops sharply, which leads to slower changes in the biopotentials of the brain.

If a person gets tired, it means that a lot of toxins accumulate in his body and he needs rest - sleep. Falling asleep, a person cannot instantly "switch off", abruptly switch from one mode of functioning to another. Yes, and for the preparation of an entity for exit, all systems of the physical body need some kind of gap, so for some time the brain is still working in the mode of activity that it was before sleep. Then the phase of the so-called REM sleep begins - the phase of falling asleep (see Fig. 76).

Further, the brain rearranges its mode of operation so that the entity begins to go beyond the energy protection of the physical body. The rate of change in the biopotentials of the brain naturally decreases, and the second phase of sleep begins (see Fig. 77).

As the essence leaves the body, the processes occurring in the neurons of the brain slow down more and more, this is the third phase of sleep (see Fig. 78).

When the essence leaves the body completely, the activity of the brain neurons drops to a minimum, this is the fourth phase of sleep (see Fig. 79).

In this state, the brain is not ready for the rapid return of the entity to its physical body. But a situation may arise when an entity, fleeing from astral predators, must quickly enter the protective psi-field of the body. Or, when a person, in moments of danger to life, must quickly wake up and be ready for action.

In these cases, the brain returns to its normal state only some time after the entrance of the entity. And only that organism, whose brain could quickly return to an active state, did not become the prey of both astral and "terrestrial" predators … True, now it is difficult to find a situation when someone is in danger from "terrestrial" predators, but sensitive sleep saves many from bipedal predators.

But how does the brain not turn off completely when the entity leaves its body? This is made possible by the evolutionary acquisition of the brain. After the essence is completely out of the physical body, the muscles that set the eyeballs in motion are periodically activated. At the same time, nerve signals enter the brain that activate the corresponding areas of the cerebral cortex (occipital optical zones), which allows the brain not to turn off completely. The signals of the movement of the eye muscles create conditions under which the brain is partially activated and goes into a state identical to the state of the beginning of the exit of an entity (see Fig. 79).

At the same time, the physical body, the brain are in a standby mode of the entity, ready for a quick return to an active state (see Fig. 80). Thus, the body, the brain are ready for situations when the entity must quickly return to its body … Such activation of the brain occurs several times during normal sleep, constantly returning the brain to the standby mode.

Before awakening, when the essence begins to return to its body, the brain is sharply activated (awakening phase) (see Fig. 81), after which it sequentially goes to states, as when the essence exits, only in the reverse order. At this time, the essence returns to its body (see Fig. 82), and the person's state returns to the wakefulness mode (see Fig. 83).

Fragment from Nikolai Levashov's book "The Last Appeal to Humanity"