Book summary of The Twenty-four Hour Mind
How sleep and dreams affect us.
In two words,
This book talks about the mysteries of sleep, dreams and sleep problems. The author believes that every new event that happens in our life reminds us of some old thing which becomes the reason for our suffering. Sleep and dreams help us to overcome these troubles.
Who is this book for?
- People who want to understand the meaning of their dreams.
- Those who do not sleep well.
- Those who have interest in knowing the functions of the mind.
About the author
Rosalind de Cartlite has researched sleep. She was the director of the psychology department at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. There he studied dreams and REM sleep. He also started a service center for people with sleep disorders. He has written books such as Night Life: Explorations in Dreaming, A Primer on Sleep and Dreaming and Crisis Dreaming: Using Your Dreams to Solve Your Problems.
Chapter no 1:
A good sleep maintains your physical and mental balance.
Have you ever wondered what goes on in your mind while you sleep? What is the reason behind the dreams you see? Have you tried to find answers to these questions by turning the pages of the books of psychologists like Jung or Freud? This book answers your questions. By reading this, you know what are the functions of your waking and sleeping mind and how important it is for your health and life to maintain harmony between these two.
Apart from this, in this summary, you will know how lack of sleep causes weight gain. How do your dreams affect your personality? Why do you feel irritable due to lack of sleep? And how important is sound sleep to you? When you do not get enough sleep, then the next morning you feel tired, you become irritable and do not feel like doing any work. This is not an inexplicable puzzle. We all know that this is what happens if you don't get enough sleep. Science also has its explanation. The sleep cycle consists of two stages. These are called NREM (Non Rapid Eye Movement) and REM (Rapid Eye Movement). These are called light and deep sleep in common parlance. It is necessary to complete this cycle to feel refreshed in the morning. For this you need about seven to nine hours of sleep.
People who take light sleep i.e. whose sleep is very raw or those who sleep less do not go into REM stage. Such people are found to have more stress than others. For example, people who work in night shift and sleep during the day are not able to get a sound and sound sleep. Because of this, the stress level remains high in them. There are other benefits of getting enough sleep.
This reduces our negative emotions like anger, fear, sadness. A study was done on 31 people who were going through the phase of divorce. 20 of them got a lot of help from this shock through good sleep and dreams. Actually he used to solve this problem in his dreams and after waking up he felt emotionally strong. Throughout the day we go through many emotions, good and bad. Even after we have fallen asleep at night, our brain keeps on trying to solve them by dealing with them. This is the reason why no matter how upset you are throughout the day, if you can sleep well at night, then the next morning you feel better.
By getting enough sleep, our endocrine system also works properly. Sleep also manages the hormones that control appetite. This is the reason that people who sleep less than 6 hours, they feel more hungry. Studies have shown that those who get less sleep on average are 7.5 times more likely to be obese.
Chapter no 2:
Our dreams help us to overcome emotional problems.
There are different beliefs about dreams. Many people think that there is a mysterious world of dreams. They keep trying to understand the meaning and pattern of dreams. Such people also believe that dreams contain signs of future events. The reality is that dreams are a reflection of our everyday lives and help us deal with our emotional disturbances. Whatever happens to us during the day, dreams revolve around them.
In these our old similar experiences are also added and a new image appears to us like a dream. That is, dreams are a mixture of old memories and present experience. Let us understand this with an example. Suppose today your mood is off due to a quarrel with a friend. Now in the dream this thing will be linked to such an old incident. (This can be a dispute with any other person). Your brain will filter out these negative emotions. In this way when you wake up the next morning you will feel more calm than yesterday and your reaction will be changed.
That is, dreams help in influencing our behavior, forming ideology and self-realization. Let's understand this in a little detail. How is our identity formed? The experiences we experience in our lives, our thoughts and reactions to them all together form our individual identity. That is, you are a reflection of your thinking and ideology. It can be understood in such a way that every human being is cast in his own standard mold which consists of small blocks. Whatever experiences we have in life, good or bad, sour and sweet, either we keep on fitting in these blocks or we try to make a new place of our own.
These experiences through dreams create a new block for themselves in this mold and thus influence our identity.
As a person goes to live or work in a new place, then he feels the need to adjust. He tries to get rid of this strangeness from his side. He mixes with people and makes his place. Dreams are also a way of dealing with this strangeness. That is, after sleep, you wake up with a new identity. Our brain is always active but its processing is different while awake and asleep. The job of the brain is to process information and this work continues for 24 hours. But there is a difference in its way while sleeping and awake. Most of the information we process while awake happens automatically. That is, once developed, we do not have to think about our habits, attitude, reaction for all this. We do not have to make any effort for it, it automatically moves in a flow. The advantage of this is that they increase our productivity. You do not have to waste your time by thinking over and over again for the same things.
Once you have learned to drive, then this skill stays with you throughout your life. Similarly, once you brush, cross the road, understand the meaning of a word, be happy in happiness and be sad in sorrow, then this information is stored permanently. Because of this, you are able to focus on many other things, you can take the time to learn something new. Just think and see how difficult your life would have become if you had to learn the above-mentioned things everyday and you forgot everyday. On the contrary, when you are sleeping, you do not need to do all that much. This means that your brain can now concentrate more on emotional behavior. Now all the important things that happen are stored in your memory and everything else gets filtered. Now you must have understood how the processing of waking mind and sleeping mind is done.
But the synergy of these two is very important. That is, the memory that the sleeping mind stores, the waking mind reacts on the basis of it. That is, good sleep is also necessary for this coordination. Just imagine that your waking mind is working but due to lack of sleep, what will happen if the sleeping mind is disturbed?
Chapter no 3:
Many problems can occur due to poor sleeping and waking routine.
By now you have understood the importance of sleep very well. You have also learned that how the function of the brain remains in harmony while awake and asleep. But if this coordination gets disturbed then many problems start to happen. A worsening of the sleep cycle can be an indication of many problems. Studies have proved that sleep-related problems are seen in the early stages of depression. Because of this, irritability starts.
Such people mostly stay in REM mode and this stage remains even after getting up. That is, the emotional state in which their mind lives while sleeping, they cannot come out of it. According to the author, depression can be fought only by improving sleep. She says that in three weeks, 60% of such people can be cured without any medical help. Another major disadvantage of not getting enough sleep is sleep disorders. In this, people unconsciously start doing all those activities which are done while awake. That means walking, eating, talking. This is a very dangerous stage. Such people can kill anyone. A man named Scott Falter did just that. This incident had given rise to the controversy that how responsible are we for the actions we do while sleeping? A neighbor had seen Faltar throw a deadbody into the swimming pool.
It was the body of Faltar's wife whom he had stabbed 44 times before throwing it. Fallator was arrested from his house. His hands and clothes were stained with blood. He said that he woke up to the sound of police sirens and could not remember what had happened between the time he went to sleep and before he got up. Investigation revealed that Falator had a sleep disorder. That night also he reached the swimming pool while walking in his sleep and in the same condition started fixing a pump. His wife tried to take him back to the room. Faltar attacked him without realizing who she was.
Lack of sleep gives rise to many health problems. Diet and lack of physical activity are often attributed to lifestyle disorders, but it is often overlooked that sleep also causes them. The biggest disadvantage of this is obesity. In western countries, it is spreading like an epidemic. A study was done for this. Those who were involved were only allowed to sleep for a few hours. His sleep cycle worsened. Because of this hormonal imbalance started happening. This made him more hungry. And within a week his weight increased. If you also compromise with your sleep then there are high chances that you will also gain weight. Lack of sleep can also lead to diabetes. A study was done on 11 people in which they were allowed to sleep for less than four hours.
Within 6 days, he started showing early signs of diabetes. People who do not get enough sleep are 2.5 times more likely to develop diabetes. Lack of sleep can prove to be fatal. There are many such examples in history where they were kept awake continuously in order to persecute or punish their enemies. This experiment was also done on rats in which they were not allowed to sleep. Soon he began to lose weight, his skin and tail began to deteriorate, and his behavior became aggressive. He died within three weeks.
The reason for this can also be due to the imbalance of body temperature. During the hustle and bustle of the day, heat is produced in our body. When we sleep at night, our temperature decreases and the body cools down. In this way the balance is maintained. If there is no sleep, then this heat starts becoming harmful. Even when a machine gets hot while running, it is turned off so that it can cool down. Our body is also a machine. So sleep on time at night and keep yourself fit.
let's revise the concepts, dreams are not just pictures seen in sleep. It keeps us healthy and helps in making us emotionally stable so that we can lead a smooth life while awake. The world of dreams is not as mysterious as we have been hearing it. Finding their meaning in big books is nothing more than a waste of time. Work throughout the day and sleep on time at night. This is the most important thing for dreaming. You can unknowingly deal with many problems with the help of good sleep and dreams. This is the work of dreams. Get enough sleep and keep them engaged in this work.
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