"empty sleep"?

marla66 asks:

Question

I was told by my spiritual mentor/psychologist that your headboard can be facing any position except West…if your head faces west, you have empty sleep, and that it is also a state of dreamlessness. Is this true, and does it matter if so, because of the room layout, there really isn’t any other choice?

I want to point out, I cannot see the door from this point if my bed is on the west facing wall.

Answer

Did your spiritual mentor/psychologist explain to you in detail what is meant by “empty sleep,” and show you the research on the subject?

Did they explain in scientific terms what makes west such a danger? Is there a degree range that is particularly troublesome, or does the problem occur only when the person’s head is pointed at 270 degrees?

There’s something very odd about this concept “empty sleep,” because humans, apes, birds, dogs, and other animals all experience REM (rapid eye movement) sleep,1 which produces dreams and is a restorative stage of sleep.2 REM has nothing to do with compass directions. It is a function of the brain and body.3

REM sleep is one part of the human sleep cycle, which can take 90 to 110 minutes on average. The cycle has five stages and works from stage 1 to REM sleep, then repeats with stage 1. Humans spend nearly 50 percent of total sleep time in stage 2 sleep, roughly 20 percent in REM sleep, and the remaining 30 percent in the other stages of sleep. However, infants spend about half of the time in REM sleep.

I searched medical literature and found nothing about “empty sleep.” (There’s an empty nose syndrome but that’s not the same thing.) Nor could I find any information relating sleep dysfunction to compass directions. Without any evidence for the existence of “empty sleep,” I wouldn’t be concerned.

Reference

  1. G. W. Vogel. “A review of REM sleep deprivation.” Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1975;32(6):749-761.
  2. Takuro Endo, Corinne Roth, Hans-Peter Landolt, Esther Werth, Daniel Aeschbach, Peter Achermann, and Alexander A. Borbély. “Selective REM sleep deprivation in humans: effects on sleep and sleep EEG.” Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 274: R1186-R1194, 1998.
  3. J. H. Benington, and H. C. Heller. “REM-sleep timing is controlled homeostatically by accumulation of REM-sleep propensity in non-REM sleep.” Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 266: R1992-R2000, 1994.
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