Gotta a question for you. Do you worry when your body does weird things like sweat when you’re nervous, you forget an awesome dream, or get carsick on a long ride. It’s puzzling, eh? Let's hop into our submarine of discovery and dive deep into why these strange tricks of our bodies happen.
1) Why do we bite our lips?
How often do you find yourself biting yourlips? One reason you do is psychological. This bad habit appears with stress and anxiety. Our brain gives our body an “order” tobite our lips so that we think less about problems and calm down. There’s also a less psychological reason. It could just be that your lips are chappedbecause of the cold! Your brain tells you to bite your lips to“refresh” them. But in the end, you get the opposite effect:cracked and painfully irritated lips. Better grab some Chapstick!
2) Why do we forget dreams?
It happens that you have such a cool dreamthat you could immediately write a Hollywood script from it! But as soon as you wake up, you forget 90%of it. The brain prevents you from remembering yourdreams for your own good. We remember the past structurally, logically,and in a certain order. Dreams are chaotic, full of symbolism andstrange images, so the brain thinks: (Brain: “This guy already has enough on his platein real life – he doesn’t that dream consuming his thoughts.”) Yes, my brain has a bad French accent. So anyway, we often wake up with thoughtsabout the coming day, so the dream immediately gets kicked out of your memory bank.
3) Why do we wake up before the alarm clock?
Yeah, brain, why do you cut my sleep short!?! Maybe the ol’ thinker is worried about beinglate for work or class? No. It’s just that waking up to an alarm clockis a big shock for the body. To avoid this unnecessary stress, the brainreleases a protein that’s responsible for wakefulness. It’d be pretty handy if you could fine-tunethis superpower – then you can forget about ever oversleeping!
4) We can’t stand being tickled, yet whydo we react to it with laughter?
Well, it’s because the most ticklish areas(the armpits and stomach) happen to cover vital organs and arteries, so nature has madethem very sensitive. Response to that sensation can border on pleasure(since all those nerves are being stimulated) and fear (for your important innards). So, you immediately try to guard these areas,laugh until you cry, and beg the tickler to please stop. But get this: when we tickle ourselves, thebody immediately sends a signal to the brain: (Brain: “There is no danger, don't react.”) To this day, tickling is still a bit of amystery to scientists!
5) Why do we sweat when we get nervous?
We get visible armpit stains at the most inopportunemoments: during a speech, on a date, at a job interview. I know it’s embarrassing, but your bodyis trying to protect you! It releases sweat in response to any dangeror stress. If you were an early human trying to get outof a headlock with a rival, then your wet skin would be slippery. Sweaty palms also cling to tree branches better. Next time you’re giving a presentation,just remember: you’ll be able to slip out of an enemy’s grip and climb up a tree! Yeah, that’s handy.
6) How does the weather give you a headache?
When the weather changes, the air pressurechanges. Your blood vessels and nerves feel this differencein pressure and react – they expand, get smaller, or spasm. In an ideal situation, these vessels are elasticand quickly recover when the weather changes drastically. But for some people, their vessels and nervescan’t keep up. So, you get a pressure difference betweenthe inside of your body and the outside. The result: pain in the form of a headacheor migraine! And FYI: your body is telling you to finda more comfortable environment!
7) Why do we feel carsickness?
Over thousands of years of evolution, thehuman brain has become accustomed to two types of movement - walking and running. In comparison to human history, cars appearednot so long ago, so the brain hasn't completely adapted. When you’re sitting in a car, your musclesare relaxed, which means there are no signs that movement is occurring. Yet the inner ear (which controls balance)feels that there is movement. The brain comes to a logical conclusion: (Brain:“I’ve been poisoned!”) What’s the best reaction to poisoning? Nausea!
8) Why does skin darken in the sun, yet hairgets lighter?
Every time you sunbathe, a real battle istaking place on the surface of your skin. The sun emits ultraviolet rays that are harmfulto our bodies. To defend itself, your skin starts producinga special pigment – melanin. It steps forward and bravely takes a hit andabsorbs ultraviolet light. With more and more pigment being produced,the skin gets darker. With hair, things are a little different. It does have small reserves of melanin, butit can’t produce it like your skin can. So, the sun quickly “burns” all the melaninreserves, and the hair loses a little pigment! It’s like the nursery rhyme: this littlepigment went to market, this little pigment stayed home, this little pigment had –what? Oh, that’s piggys, not pigment? Never mind.
9) Why do we hear ringing in the ears?
To understand what causes that ringing, youneed to know how the ear works. The inner part of your ear is covered in thousandsof tiny hair cells that vibrate when they meet a soundwave. Hello soundwave…ooh. These vibrations create a nerve impulse that’ssent to the brain. The brain processes the signal, and we hearsounds. But if we listen to loud music often, thosenerve cells get damaged. Over time, they stop working efficiently andcan send false signals to the brain, even if there was no soundwave. That false signal is a sudden ringing.
10) Ever stood up too fast and gotten dizzyand lightheaded?
When you quickly go from a lying positionto standing, the blood in your body drops to your feet and legs, thanks-a-lot gravity! Luckily your body recovers quickly, and bloodflow returns to your brain, easing the dizzy feeling.
11) Why does crying cause that weird lumpin the throat?
Yet again, evolution gives us the answer. When a person is in any stressful situation,the brain recognizes this as a threat (yes, even if you’re just crying over a sad movie). Your body sends all the available oxygen intoyour muscles to prepare to fight or run away (this is called the fight or flight response). The throat muscles expand to get more oxygen. So, trying to swallow around your swollenmuscles is what causes that lumpy feeling.
12) Is it true that our heart stops duringa sneeze?
Everyone’s heard about this - while sneezingthe body “freezes” and the heart stops, but in fact, it is a myth from the MiddleAges. Ya know, back before there was science toexplain these things, p eople believed that during a sneeze, the body let go of too muchair and that it could stop your heart forever. Back then people didn’t know that sneezingis the body's way of getting rid of itchy things from their nose.
13) Why do we get lazy after a big meal?
This one takes us back to the caveman days. Our body needs a few basics for survival includingfood and water. You’re more active when you’re hungry(Brain: your caveman brain is telling you to look for food) but as soon as you haveeaten, your brain thinks (Brain: “Sweet! I just got all I need so now it’s time tosave this energy!”) Your brain makes you lazy to store the energythat you got from your food for longer. Speaking of our brain…
14) Why is it hard to wake up on weekdaysand so easy wake up on the weekend?
The reason is quite funny…our brain perceivesgoing to school or work as a threat and tries to protect us from this stress by keepingus in bed. If you want to wake up ready to take on theday, try thinking about what a great day tomorrow will be before you go to bed. Let me know how well it works out for youin the comments!
15) Why do we get cramps when we run?
If you’ve ever experienced a running cramp,you know that it can be super uncomfortable. The good news is that it is totally normal. As you are running, your blood doesn’t haveenough time to spread out evenly in your body and hangs out in your liver and spleen. The extra blood is what causes the crampingfeeling. An easy fix for this problem: just to makesure you warm-up well before your workout!! (Brain: Thanks for watching. Now -- I have to go make this guy sweat alittle more, and then get carsick. Hey, even a brain’s got to have some funsometimes, eh?) Hey, if you learned something new today, then give the article a like and share it with a friend! and stayon the Bright Side of life!