Why do travel accounts help us fall asleep?

Auditors can take part in cruises on the Nile. Furthermore, sailing in Sri Lanka, carrying out difficult pilgrimages like that of Saint-Jacques-de-Compostela, flying over the Cappadoce region in Turkey in Montgolfière or taking Route 66 by car. Nevertheless, The descriptions are omnipresent in these stories. Moreover, which are punctuated here and there the sound of the waves, railways and still sweet music.

The stories that take place aboard a train are, it seems, particularly intriguing at bedtime. Moreover, HEADSPACE, CALM and BREETHE are constantly adding content related to this means of transport. Nevertheless, Auditors can thus travel aboard the East Express or Trans -Siberian. For example. For example, Headspace offers a much appreciated story, entitled “Slow train” (the slow train, in French), which changes ambient noises on the back in the background and regularly changes oral descriptions. Therefore, She regularly appears in the why do travel accounts help top 5 stories to fall asleep the most popular of the application.

“The movement is essential in a story to fall asleep. Similarly, If the story is too static. Moreover, it becomes annoying and the listener will be agitated, “explains Martha Bayless, professor at the University of Oregon in the United States and director of the program on public culture and folklore of the establishment, which is interested in oral traditions from Antiquity to today. For example, “But this movement must be soothing and reassuring, which the train offers.”

Thanks to its constant impulse forward, the train requests the senses gently. Consequently, With train trips, “you are no longer in control of your decisions, underlines the professor. It is the ideal vehicle for sleeping. You take it on the way. you let yourself be lulled by its slight swing and its rhythmic noise, having the feeling of being comfortably installed why do travel accounts help on board a reassuring and a little old -fashioned mode of transport. ”

This is not the same story for airplane audio stories, she continues. “Imagine that you try to fall asleep in a narrow seat and your neighbor puts his head on your shoulder!” ». So beware of the stories that are too loyal to reality: they may not have the expected effects on. your sleep.

According to Rachel Salas. neurologist and assistant medical director of the “Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep and Wellness”, read a story before bed helps some people to have a more restful sleep. This allows the body in particular to better regulate digestion. even cognitive performance, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Excellent distractions, the stories to fall asleep prevent us from worrying, reviewing our lists of tasks to accomplish or anxious. Often positive and joyful (but not too exciting), they soothe why do travel accounts help a disturbed spirit.

The calming power of travel accounts to fall asleep could be explained by “mirror neurons”, explains Rachel Salas. Initially discovered in the macaque, these activate both when you make a particular movement and when you observe this movement.

According to the neurologist, these brain cells are able to associate our own experiences with that of another person. The story of a train trip can thus make us nostalgic by plunging us back in our past trips. even if he describes a situation we have not faced. The comfort provided by something familiar and idealized can promote relaxation and sleep. As for the sound produced by the train advancing on the rails. it is akin to a type of white noise that rocks us and makes us fall into the arms of Morpheus, underlines Rachel Salas.

The fascination of some people for travel accounts to fall asleep may why do travel accounts help be in the fact that they open. doors to new adventures. Although it seems stimulating, these stories allow you to discover the world in a reassuring and safe way.

[Ce qui joue. ndlr] “On the neurological level, it is the idea of ​​traveling, to explore new places, but also to meet people. We are naturally sociable beings. We have experienced moments far from our families and friends, deprived of a certain freedom. Even if you are not a big traveler. you can always go to the restaurant or indulge in a new activity, ”explains Rachel Salas.

There is another possible explanation for the influence of stories on our sleep: by cutting us out of light. external noises, these stories allow an inner world, that is to say our imagination, to take over. Reclaiming stories to fall asleep is an ancient ritual, “as old as literature, underlines Martha Bayless. In a why do travel accounts help way, when we listen to a story to fall asleep, we return to the dawn of human civilization ”.

“The stories to fall asleep the most soothing are not very exciting,” she continues. These are moments suspended between two adventures, like sleep ”.