For the purpose of learning how to sleep, the relationship between the higher control (cerebral cortex) and the lower control (sleep centre) must be made clear. Many studies, including animal experiments, have attempted to demonstrate the existence of a sleep centre. The exact location of this is still controversial, although it is believed to be located somewhere in the brain stem.
This is a few animal experiments that may be helpful in establishing the model of how sleep is controlled. The following animal experiments were conducted to demonstrate that the higher control (the cerebral cortex) has an arousal effect on the lower control (the sleep centre):
(1) If the sleep centre is stimulated electrically, the animal goes into sleep.
(2) If electrical stimulation is applied to the cerebral cortex of a sleeping animal, the animal wakes up. The cerebral cortex has relayed this stimulation to the sleep centre and this has an arousal effect.
(3) If a surgical cut is made in the mid-brain separating the connection between the cerebral cortex and the sleep centre, the animal goes into chronic sleep. Even if the cerebral cortex is now stimulated electrically, the sleep centre is no longer influenced and the sleeping animal cannot be aroused.
Hence the reason why we are sometimes awake for many hours in bed is that the thinking part of the brain—the cerebral cortex— is sending arousal messages to the sleep centre. The higher control has taken over and is preventing the sleep centre from switching into sleep; this is the commonest cause of insomnia.
To facilitate sleep we have to stop the cerebral cortex from sending arousal messages to the sleep centre, so that the latter can take over and trigger sleep. Arousal messages are uncontrolled thoughts. If we can learn how to control thoughts, we can shift from the waking mode to the transitional hypnotic state (THS) and consequently into sleep.
*94\174\4*
When pain lingers, another fear comes to us. Most of us fear death when faced directly with it, and lingering pain brings the fear of death even when the doctors assure us that there is nothing seriously wrong. Fear brings doubts: “Doctors make mistakes; and anyway they don’t tell you the worst.” If the pain is in the abdomen we are soon convinced that it is due to cancer; if it is in the chest we think of a coronary. Even when the pain is in some other part, if fear takes over, the same thoughts come to us. Strange as it may seem, in these circumstances the pain may spread so that we feel it in the heart, and fear leads us to think that the injury to our leg has brought on a heart attack.
The Destructive Effect of Pain-We can see, then, that instead of being a helpful warning against injury, pain that is too severe and too prolonged, when associated with distress and guilt and fear, soon becomes a destructive influence to both body and mind. It is only with the stoutest heart that morale does not weaken; and with failure of morale in any illness the healing process is correspondingly retarded. So anything that we can do in the way of learning the control of pain will not only boost our morale, but will also have an indirect effect on the physical healing of our body.
As an example of this process it is as well to recall that some years ago it was the custom to change the bandages on surgical wounds very frequently. This, particularly in the case of burns, would cause the patient great pain. The patient would wait in fear for the next change of dressings.
Children would scream at the approach of the nurses. Even before the advent of the antibiotic drugs, the change to less frequent dressings improved, both morale and healing.
*116\57\2*
Children tempted
“We. You and me, and people like us. We know what is right and what is wrong. We have strength. Inward strength of some degree. So we are not easily tempted. We have seen something of the world. We know where danger lies. We know something of how to avoid it. But children! You see them moving into areas of temptation. They are young. They may not have the strength to avoid it. They have not been about long enough to recognize the danger signs as we do. I fear for them.
‘What can I do? Think of them all day. And the night as well. Tell them of all the dangers, and I shall make them timid, or drive them from me. Let them face it. Let them suffer. Let them learn by experience. Oh God. I can’t. The experience may be crippling. Criminal. Criminal to do that.
‘I cannot cope. Is it that I should never have had children?”
She is worried. Disturbing impulses stream into her brain. The children sense her anxiety which makes them anxious too. We catch the mood of those around us. If we are calm, the children will take in some of our calmness. Children identify with their parents. Such is the law of nature.
“I know that it is not, but I feel that it is. That it is my fault that my son is the way he is. My fault. The feeling of it lives with me. Something that I must have done while carrying him. I have asked myself a hundred times. I did no evil thing. No neglect that I know of. So why? Why must this be? Somehow, somehow it must be that the fault is mine.”
Many a mother and not a few fathers have thought like this. It is the recurring thought. Somebody must be responsible. Somebody’s fault. It must be mine. I created him. Any imperfection that he shows is surely my doing.
The thought of it occupies her mind, and the messages so induced clog her brain.
Reassurance from an authoritative person may do something to help. But similar reassurance in friendly conversation leaves little impact. More important is that other process of the mind. The understanding, just the understanding, that we cannot know it all.
*10/98/5*