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VIDEO. Falling asleep to a true crime podcast, is it really a good idea?
Some people feel the need to listen to a podcast about a crime story when they fall asleep. It’s a trend that’s showing up on social media. To understand the impact that this use has on the brain when falling asleep, Brut spoke with Vanessa Slimani, neuropsychiatrist and specialist in sleep disorders.
(Raw.)
Some people feel the need to listen to a podcast about a crime story when they fall asleep. It’s a trend that’s showing up on social media. To understand the impact that this use has on the brain when falling asleep, Brut spoke with Vanessa Slimani, neuropsychiatrist and specialist in sleep disorders.
To fall asleep, some will choose to listen to a podcast on a criminal story. The opportunity for them to “create positive excitement, which will take (them) out of the day that (they) experienced” explains Vanessa Slimani, neuropsychiatrist, specialist in sleep disorders. For the neuropsychiatrist, “It will depend on the emotional state we are looking for. We may want to experience sensations that we have not had during the day, sensations that are a little strong, to be frightened, but safe.” She adds : “All day long, our brain is busy going between family or professional tasks, and at bedtime, in the dark and in the silence, anxiety-provoking thoughts can return, or even traumatic relivings to which the podcast will help to bring to light. END. When we listen to a podcast, we will concentrate completely on what we are listening to. We are in the dark. There are no other stimulations, neither visual, for example, nor olfactory. And that will create a hypnotic state”.
“What seems scary to some, to others it will create excitement.”
Vanessa Slimani explains that “falling asleep is an active phenomenon. We have neurons which are located at the level of the hypothalamus and which will broadcast GABA throughout the brain, which is a neurotransmitter and which will gradually inhibit the structures of arousal. And what’s interesting is that for a very long time, we thought that it was a phenomenon that happened suddenly, a bit as if there was a switch that put us in off mode, whereas it is a phenomenon that occurs gradually. Which means that we can have phenomena, which we have all experienced, such as the impression, for example, of falling into a void, because the muscular tone will decrease faster than our state of consciousness, or what These are called hypnagogic hallucinations. We are asleep, we will hear words, have sensations of presence, which come from the fact that all areas of the brain do not fall asleep at the same time.”
“In absolute terms, we don’t need stimulation to fall asleep. It’s actually quite the opposite”
When falling asleep, the podcast may continue to play. Then it can mix and integrate with dreams. “It’s an experience that we’ve all had. You are sleeping, the phone rings and you dream of the phone ringing. Well that can happen with a criminal story and it can promote more negative emotions during the dream” specifies the sleep disorders specialist. She reminds us that to fall asleep, “we don’t need stimulation. It’s even quite the opposite. Where this poses a problem is when you absolutely need to listen to the podcast before going to sleep, when you absolutely have to launch the phone or tablet. At this point, it’s interesting to ask the question: what happens when I find myself in darkness and silence? Are there thoughts that come back? Do I have any special sensations in my body? To fall asleep, you need to be able to feel safe. And when you have had a climate of insecurity at some point in your life, it’s difficult to fall asleep. And there, listening to the podcast no longer becomes an activity before sleeping but it is something that masks a disorder that we know how to treat.”.