The Science Behind Why You Sleep Badly In A Bed That Isn't Yours

A new study states that the reason we are incapable of sleeping in new places is due to a residual survival instinct.

 

Sleep scientists Masako Tamaki and Yuka Sasaki from Brown University studied a number of sleeping brains and found that, when in a new atmosphere, only half of your brain is actually asleep, whereas the other half – the left hemisphere to be specific - remains active.

 

The experiment found the people who were sleeping in an unfamiliar place were more prone to react to “deviant external stimuli,” sounds that the brain may observe as a threat in the new environment, such as unfamiliar creaks in a new house, traffic outside, or a dog barking.

 

Whales and dolphins have a similar system that means they can protect themselves from a threat quickly upon waking.

 

 

 

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