Getting out of the Wrong Side of Bed?

Please note that this thread is not conspiracy related.
Recently I have been thinking of a new hypothesis. This time it is about the the physical pressure put on the human brain during sleep.
Please feel free to criticise or give your input and personal input.
Here is a basic introduction:

What we already know about The Human Brain.
The brain is 'divided' into several sections. Different parts of your brain controls different parts of you. Emotions, types of emotions, intellectual creativity, artistic creativity, movement, speech, etc...


What we already know about Sleep.

Think about how much time you spend asleep. The average working adult normally gets eight hours every day. That's an (un)exhausting average of 2900 hours every year!

About a third of our entire lifetime is spent asleep.
But what good is all this sleep for? We sleep to rest and relax our body and allow our brains to rejuvenate and restore. Basically without sleep our brains would not be able to sort out the information we gather during the day. This would drive us quite literally mad. Eventually it would kill us.
Summary? We sleep alot. Sleep is healthy.


So can we link the two?
Many people like myself cannot get comfortable enough to sleep unless we lie in a certain position. Likewise, many people like myself normally wake up after adequate rest, facing in a specific direction.

Remember that certain parts of the brain control different aspects us. If we spend so much time of our lives asleep; predominantly lying in the same position, we are putting physical pressure on certain parts of the brain.

Surely the pressure would effect the way the brain operates, depending on where the pressure lies. This in turn would affects us.


Conclusion
I suggest that a large part of our personality, strength of emotions, creativity, and intellectual potential may be predetermined by how we sleep.


Interesting? Plausible? If you have input, feel free to post it. If not, don't lose sleep over it!

Wow, I've never thought of that before.
I was just heading off to bed when I thought I'd check out the recent posts page. And now, thanks to you, Gear, I'm not going to get to sleep for hours.

From watching CSI I think I have an accurate mental portrayal of the brain, and I've got to say that I reckon you're onto something.
Jokes aside, when babies are born, is it not standard practise to lay the infant on its back? For the first 6 months, or year, whatever it is, when the mind and brain is developing and when it can perhaps be influenced the most, pretty much every single perosn on this planet was always in the exact same position: on his or her back.

Which of course prompts the question, what would happen if we started laying babies on their tummies? Apart from the rise in mortality rates, ahem.


All this is most definitely is food for thought.
I think I'm gonna have to switch off the alarm clock . . .

Even though your theory is quite original, I don't think there's a whole lot of merit to it.

First of all, the brain is encased in something called Cerebrospinal Fluid. This is a very dense fluid, so much so that the brain weights 50 times less when suspended in the fluid. Also if you've ever seen an MRI scan of the brain you'll notice that there's a buffer between the brain and the skull, so this makes it less likely for sleep to put any sort of pressure on the brain.

Also, the part of the brain that controls personality is mainly localised within the front part of the brain. I don't think many people sleep resting on their foreheads, since that'd probably inhibit breathing and all. If what you're saying is true then I'm sure someone would've noticed that for example, people who predominately sleep on their backs have their perception altered in some abnormal way (since visual processing is controlled by an area at the back of the brain).

in order to combat this terrifying problem , i have taken the simple step of positioning my bed alongside the wall

thus - i can ONLY get out on one side

hey - it works for me

be safe - move that bed today

damn straight great topic!
tibet monks say u should sleep with ur back facing the bed couse if u sleed on ur side ur puting pressure on the hart and if u sleep on stomach ur stomach cant work the food good so think about the whole body not just the brain^^

Originally posted by watch_the_rocks
Wow, I've never thought of that before.
I was just heading off to bed when I thought I'd check out the recent posts page. And now, thanks to you, Gear, I'm not going to get to sleep for hours.

From watching CSI I think I have an accurate mental portrayal of the brain, and I've got to say that I reckon you're onto something.
Jokes aside, when babies are born, is it not standard practise to lay the infant on its back? For the first 6 months, or year, whatever it is, when the mind and brain is developing and when it can perhaps be influenced the most, pretty much every single perosn on this planet was always in the exact same position: on his or her back.

Which of course prompts the question, what would happen if we started laying babies on their tummies? Apart from the rise in mortality rates, ahem.


All this is most definitely is food for thought.
I think I'm gonna have to switch off the alarm clock . . .

the part of your brain in the back of your head is your vision center. this wouldn't improve e.g. intelligence if gear is correct with his idea. might make for better analysis of the information the brain gets from your eyes ?

interesting thought btw Gear. but what would be the degree that this would influence your functioning and capacities? maybe it's just something like .01 %

(ps any part of the brain can do any function. just not as good as the area's that were intended to do it, and it's limited. e.g. something as big as your visual center could not be replaced by a different part of your brain if damaged. but other functions can)

Ow maybe relevant btw. it's a proven fact activites like headbanging can slightly damage parts of the brain and if done regularly over the course of years can have noticable effects on the person doing this.
The reason behind this is that the brain floats inside it's own "bubble" of membrane filled with fluid as said earlier. so if you do extreme stuff like headbanging the brain moves independent from the skull and gets smacked against your skull.

I've been up to long so the scientifc terms don't seem to want to pop up in my brain, but it's the same thing when your e.g. standing in a bus.. when it breaks you want to continu on the path you were going and move forward relative to the bus.. a sudden emergency stop and you'd go flying towards the front of the bus.. same thing..

I wonder if daily 8 hour pressures spanning years might have a similar effect..

my guess though would be the effect is there but very small to unnoticable.

but who knows

[edit on 1-4-2007 by David2012]