Random Disgusting And Creepy Things That Happen To Your Body While You're Sleeping (13 items)

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  (#13) Your Brain Goes Into Cleaning Mode

  Your brain is active both at night and during the day, but sometimes it needs a little time to tidy up the place, and sleep is the best time to do that. A study done in 2013 shows that waste removal systems in the brain happen to be more active as you slumber, particularly in REM sleep. This means that the brain is better at clearing away toxic byproducts that might build up in the body and brain, and could cause health problems. Your immune system is also working at higher levels, which means that you're keeping your body healthy and tidy, even while you rest.

  During this time, your brain also sorts and stores information accumulated during the day. It tosses out things it believes we don't need to remember, and keeps what we do. So, if you wake up having forgotten some of what you needed to remember for a test in the morning, your good night's sleep could be the reason for that.
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  (#6) Your Body Ramps Up Your Immune System

  Sometimes, your body uses the opportunity of you being asleep to kick certain functions into overdrive. One thing it does this to is your immune system. As you sleep, the body turns up the dial on proteins that ward off various infections. These proteins are known as tumor necrosis factor, or TNF for short. They're great at, in particular, offing tumor cells and interacting with the way your body's cells reproduce. These proteins also help keep you sleepy, so you tend to sleep better when you have high levels of them going through your body. In other words, your body seems to use sleep as an opportunity to send out terminator cells to eliminate all potential threats.

  If we don't have enough of these proteins, we can get very sick, even with potentially fatal health issues. So, sleep well, get sick less. 
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  (#10) Your Whole Body Slows Down

  When you sleep, some parts of your body decide it's time to go into overdrive, such as your immune system. The rest of you, however, more often likes to take it easy and slow the heck down. Your body temperature drops, your blood pressure lowers, and your breathing rate goes way down. Your brain waves slow down as well, with occasional sudden bursts, and your heart rate lowers to a slow steady pace.

  Even your kidneys slow down. This is particularly important, because it keeps you from having to pee in your sleep. Your organs that filter toxins out of your bloodstream and produce urine start doing less and act very slowly. This is why, in the morning, you usually have to pee and the urine you produce is so dark in color.
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  (#12) You Get Taller Every Night

  During the day, the pressures of the world weight heavily on your shoulders. Literally. You have discs in your spine that act as cushions between bone pieces in your back. During the day, they get slightly compressed by the weight of your body and constant movements. During the night, they rehydrate and decompress, making your spine slightly longer. By the time you wake up, you'll have gained a little bit of height. This is especially true for people who lie on their side, taking any weight at all off of your back.

  For another thing, the body produces more human growth hormone while you sleep. This helps muscles, bone, and other tissues regenerate, and can help keep you growing when you're young. Still, when you're an adult, you do gain some height just from relaxing in a lying down position.
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  (#4) Your Throat Gets Narrower

  This might sound like no big deal, but it can actually be a serious problem. When you sleep, your breathing slows and changes, and your throat gets more narrow in response as your muscles begin to relax. For certain people, the throat gets too narrow, and this is what causes heavy snoring. This is exacerbated by issues with the tonsils, sicknesses that gum up the throat, or clogged sinuses.

  But here's where it gets potentially dangerous. In some rare instances, the airway can get so narrow that it briefly closes altogether. This can cause sleep apnea, a condition where the airway briefly closes and breathing periodically starts and stops for periods of time. In some occasional and severe scenarios, sleep apnea can help lead to someone's demise.
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  (#8) Your Sense Of Smell Stops Working

  Scientists have found that when you're in deep sleep, certain parts of your body slow and even stop working. One of those things that stops is your sense of smell. Unfortunately, this can also have a potentially dangerous effect.

  Brown University decided to research just how well we can sleep through strong smells, and they did this by using smoke. They exposed deeply sleeping participants to smoke, even at intense levels, but the participants did not wake up. Time to make sure those smoke detectors are up to date!

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