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 your lips?
One reason you do is psychological.
This bad habit appears with stress and anxiety.
Our brain gives our body an “order” to bite 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 chapped because 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 dream that 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 your dreams for your own good.
We remember the past structurally, logically, and in a certain order.
Dreams are chaotic, full of symbolism and strange images, so the brain thinks: (Brain:
“This guy already has enough on his plate in 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 thoughts about 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 being late for work or class?
No.
It’s just that waking up to an alarm clock is a big shock for the body.
To avoid this unnecessary stress, the brain releases a protein that’s responsible for
wakefulness.
It’d be pretty handy if you could fine-tune this superpower – then you can forget about
ever oversleeping!
4) We can’t stand being tickled, yet why do 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 made them 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, the body immediately sends a signal to the brain:
(Brain: “There is no danger, don't react.”)
To this day, tickling is still a bit of a mystery to scientists!
5) Why do we sweat when we get nervous?
We get visible armpit stains at the most inopportune moments: during a speech, on a date, at a
job interview.
I know it’s embarrassing, but your body is trying to protect you!
It releases sweat in response to any danger or stress.
If you were an early human trying to get out of 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 pressure changes.
Your blood vessels and nerves feel this difference in pressure and react – they expand, get
smaller, or spasm.
In an ideal situation, these vessels are elastic and quickly recover when the weather changes
drastically.
But for some people, their vessels and nerves can’t keep up.
So, you get a pressure difference between the inside of your body and the outside.
The result: pain in the form of a headache or migraine!
And FYI: your body is telling you to find a more comfortable environment!
7) Why do we feel carsickness?
Over thousands of years of evolution, the human brain has become accustomed to two types
of movement - walking and running.
In comparison to human history, cars appeared not so long ago, so the brain hasn't completely
adapted.
When you’re sitting in a car, your muscles are 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 hair gets lighter?
Every time you sunbathe, a real battle is taking place on the surface of your skin.
The sun emits ultraviolet rays that are harmful to our bodies.
To defend itself, your skin starts producing a special pigment – melanin.
It steps forward and bravely takes a hit and absorbs 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, but it can’t produce it like your skin can.
So, the sun quickly “burns” all the melanin reserves, and the hair loses a little pigment!
It’s like the nursery rhyme: this little pigment 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, you need to know how the ear works.
The inner part of your ear is covered in thousands of tiny hair cells that vibrate when they
meet a soundwave.
Hello soundwave…ooh.
These vibrations create a nerve impulse that’s sent to the brain.
The brain processes the signal, and we hear sounds.
But if we listen to loud music often, those nerve cells get damaged.
Over time, they stop working efficiently and can 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 dizzy and lightheaded?
When you quickly go from a lying position to standing, the blood in your body drops
to your feet and legs, thanks-a-lot gravity!
Luckily your body recovers quickly, and blood flow returns to your brain, easing the dizzy
feeling.
11) Why does crying cause that weird lump in 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 into your 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 swollen muscles is what causes that lumpy feeling.
12) Is it true that our heart stops during a sneeze?
Everyone’s heard about this - while sneezing the body “freezes” and the heart stops,
but in fact, it is a myth from the Middle Ages.
Ya know, back before there was science to explain these things, p eople believed that
during a sneeze, the body let go of too much air and that it could stop your heart forever.
Back then people didn’t know that sneezing is 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 including food 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 have eaten, your brain thinks (Brain: “Sweet!
I just got all I need so now it’s time to save this energy!”)
Your brain makes you lazy to store the energy that you got from your food for longer.
Speaking of our brain…
14) Why is it hard to wake up on weekdays and so easy wake up on the weekend?
The reason is quite funny…our brain perceives going to school or work as a threat and tries
to protect us from this stress by keeping us in bed.
If you want to wake up ready to take on the day, try thinking about what a great day tomorrow
will be before you go to bed.
Let me know how well it works out for you in 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 have enough time to spread out evenly in your body
and hangs out in your liver and spleen.
The extra blood is what causes the cramping feeling.
An easy fix for this problem: just to make sure you warm-up well before your workout!!
(Brain: Thanks for watching.
Now -- I have to go make this guy sweat a little more, and then get carsick.
Hey, even a brain’s got to have some fun sometimes, eh?)
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