Sleep - as a way of knowing the world around
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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It is known that newborn children spend most of their time in a dream, but Colombian specialists have found out that in this way they will know the world around them. Their conclusions are confirmed by observations and a series of experiments on infants.
During the research, the researchers found that newborns constantly process information obtained during wakefulness, also their brain processes information during sleep. According to experts this is what allows the new little man to adapt quickly to our world. But the methods and methods of cognition differ from one child to another, and the authors of the study, in support of their conclusions, provided the results of experiments involving newborn infants.
In the course of the experiment, scientists on sleeping children rattled rattles alternately and blown slightly to the eyelids. As a result, 24 out of 26 kids in 20 minutes already tightened their eyelids at the sounds of the rattle, as this sound was associated with them with the subsequent blow of air. At the same time, the devices recorded that all the children were in a phase of deep sleep. According to scientists this confirms that children, while in a dream, can learn and learn a new world for them, on an example with a rattle they could connect the sound of a rattle and the following blow. At the same time, after the scientists stopped blowing at the children, but only rattled the rattle, the kids still continued to squeeze their eyelids as if defending themselves from the blow. According to psycho-biologist Inge Maot Eigsti, the discovery is incredible, but the fact that the children, in a dream, understood the connection between sound and the following blow is evident.
The authors of the study call their discovery a sensation, since it was previously believed that conditioned reflexes in humans can only be developed during wakefulness, but experience with newborns demonstrated the opposite. It is worth noting that the brain's capabilities are even less studied than half, so it is not known what other possibilities are hidden by our body.
Further experiments also confirmed that in a dream, newborns are able to learn and can use the experience obtained previously. During sleep, newborns are updated memory, as indicated by certain wave fluctuations in the brains of babies. As scientists believe, this discovery can be useful in the diagnosis of certain diseases, in particular, autism, attention deficit, inability to learn, etc.
A few months ago in the UK, a group of scientists found that children are several times more likely to perceive pain, in comparison with adults, because they have a higher pain threshold. Such conclusions were made by experts after having conducted several studies with the help of a tomograph with the participation of 10 infants. Scientists noted that a very high pain threshold in newborns, who are only a few weeks from birth, so they react very strongly to pain.
With the help of a tomograph (an apparatus that allows to obtain an x-ray image of a certain layer), the scientists conducted a unique experiment - all small participants were given nyxes during sleep and the tomograph recorded that the brain of the newborn was 4 times more reactive to the procedure than in adults. It is worth noting that earlier it was believed that newborns do not feel pain at all, now, thanks to the British specialists, small pain patients are treated with anesthetic during painful procedures.