First night away from home: alert!

Finally on holiday! Sun, sea, relaxation and fun, but when evening comes and you get prepared to fall into the arms of Morpheus in a beautiful hotel room, equipped with every comfort, the situation is always the same. You are in your bed: wide-eyed in the dark, you turn from one side to the other, then you fix the pillow ... But nothing is worth it. One sheep, two sheep, three sheep, 4, 5 ... 10 ... 100 ... 1000 ... Still nothing! Sleeping away from home is not so simple for everyone and, as we all know, a good rest is essential. Even on vacation!

According to some experts, there is a reason which explains why you cannot sleep well out of your home. It does not depend on the comfort of the bed or how cozy the hotel room is. The reason is another, a part of the brain, especially the left hemisphere, stays awake to guard. And it is right to say that you sleep with one eye! This phenomenon has been named the "effect of the first night" and it is a kind of protective and primordial mechanism put in place by our mind to keep us alert and defend ourselves against a new environment that, in some way, could hide danger. During sleep, the ability to respond to environmental stimuli is reduced in a mysterious and rather drastic way, especially in an environment familiar to us and that is why it is not that difficult to get lost in the maze of our dreams, in our own dear bed . Out of our habitat things change.

Scientists have studied the "effect of the first night " on some volunteers, who were invited to sleep in the lab for a few days. While all participants were resting, their brain activity was analyzed through the use of some neuroimaging techniques. The images showed that, during the first night of sleep away from home, the two hemispheres of the brain manifested different levels of activity. In particular, the left side seemed to be immersed in a less deep sleep than the right side. In addition, it also showed a greater response to sounds. However, during the subsequent sleep sessions, this effect disappeared, showing that the phenomenon occurs only on the first night.

The different activities of the hemispheres have also been found in some animals, such as aquatic mammals for example, which have to rise to the surface to breathe. For us it is simply an instinctive and protective choice of our brain, which is useful to put ourselves in a position to be ready to flee in case of attack. Thus, you can also understand why we say "sleep with one eye or with one eye open" when we refer to someone who may seem distracted, but actually is not.

There is a way to sleep better on your first night out: taking along your pillow or staying in a hotel which has a setting similar to your home, to counter your self-protective instinct. In any case, the experts explain that, frequent travelers, unwittingly learn to annihilate the effect of the first night. The human brain is very flexible and, therefore, those who are in a new place every day can still have a regular sleep.