Something is stealing our dream and they are not just the screens. A neurologist helps us understand what is really happening

We sleep, we dream, we forget. But do we really know what happens while we sleep? Sleep paralysis, déjà vusawakening in the early morning or that exhaustion that appears even after Sleep eight hours. In this new section of Xataka we enter all those questions that we have ever asked ourselves and that until now were still without clear response. Or worse: full of myths.

We release ‘Science and Apart’, a new section in Our YouTube channelalso Available as Podcast on Spotify and Ivoox. A space where we propose to talk about science with experts in the field. In this first episode, our partner Ángela Blanco talks with the doctor Daniel Blanes Jacquartspecialist in neurology and member of the Spanish Sleep Society.

“Dream is a vital function,” explains Blanes. “It helps us to prepare our internal environment and respond to demands From the external environment. ”Sleeping is not simply to rest: it is a biological need that occupies much of our life. Although we perceive it as a kind of blackout, during the dream there are fundamental processes for our body, such as internal reparation.

And it is not necessary to be a scientist to intuit it. Just look at the data of a smart watch like the Apple Watch Series 10 or the Huawei Watch 5. Those graphs that divide the night into phases such as REM, deep, essential or vigil are not only decorative: they respond to real processes that fulfill very different functions with each other. In our dialogue with Blanes, concepts such as declarative memory, emotional memory appear, what they are and in which part of the dream are fixed.

The talk also addresses ideas such as the relationship between what we remember and the quality of rest. “We all dream a lot, but most dreams are not fixed in memory.” Our guest explains why this happens and what does it mean if We dream very often And we can tell what we have experienced (or we think we have experienced).

Angela asks how it is possible to wake up paralyzed, unable to move. “Sleep paralysis is an incomplete awakening,” says Blanes, and adds: “I am awake, I wake up, but I continue with the activation of the visual, auditory cortex, that is, you can see things or you can hear things that are not because in the background is still that part of the REM active and, in addition, the paralysis is complete.”

Issues that are very present in everyday life are also addressed. Do we sleep worse than before? Are the guilty screens? Does blue light affect us more than we believe? Throughout the episode we talk about the impact of sleep hormones, why we hate Mondays, narcolepsia and even the collagen we produce at night. “We have a tool to make collagen that is the dream.”

We invite you to discover all this and much more in ‘Science and apart’, which starts with a very interesting episode and that makes some key concepts about sleep clear. It will help us better understand this fundamental part of our life. Now we just have to choose the platform you prefer to enjoy this first episode.

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