The Autonomic Nervous System

The autonomic nervous system is something we have discussed in chapters at the beginning of the year, middle of the year, and now, the endish of the year. We all know what it does- the sympathetic nervous system prepares us for flight-or-fight; pupils dilate, heart rate accelerates, salivation stops, adrenaline rush, etc. But we do not give it enough recognition, so I wanted to devote a post to it.

One night this week, at 2:30 AM, whilst I was sleeping, I heard a huge bang and a crash. I was in the middle of a deep sleep- I was in REM, because I abruptly left whatever world I was dreaming about. Anyways, my mind had heard this sound, even though I was not paying attention to it, and then my sympathetic nervous system kicked in and I was wide awake, heart pounding, body tensed to either fight or flee. My mouth was dry, I had a major adrenaline rush, and all of the other things that the sympathetic nervous system does. I was so freaked out- I thought someone had smashed my window. Actually, what happened was my window shade fell down, because it's been broken for a while and it falls every so often, but usually during the day when I'm trying to open it. I guess it had been slipping all day, and it finally crashed down. So there was no need for me to get all tense. As you all know, we learned that it takes a while for the body to resume to normal after the sympathetic nervous system has done its stuff. I was up from 2:30 to 4:00 because I was just so awake. I was more awake at that moment that I'd been all week. I was so aware of everything, and completely energized because of the release of adrenaline. Once I realized it was only the window shade, my parasympathetic nervous system started calming my body down.

Thank G-d we have these automatic responses in our bodies, because if it had been a real intruder, my body would have automatically prepared me to run or fight. It was a huge moment of clarity and adrenaline. A moment of silence to appreciate the sympathetic nervous system!