The Secret World of Sleep: 4 Weird Things About Catching sleep

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What happens after we head to bed each night? Do we simply snooze, or do we enter into a dimly lit place of wonders, terrors and peculiar science? Given that this is mental_floss, do you even have to ask?

1. FATAL FAMILIAL INSOMNIA

Have you ever not been able to fall asleep, yet felt so tired you think you might just die? Those unfortunate enough to have this disease actually do. An exceptionally rare, heritable condition, it's 100 percent fatal. According to scientists who have studied the disease, it’s caused by malfunctioning brain proteins. The brains of those afflicted look much like sufferers of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (the human form of mad cow disease).

But don’t freak out just yet—you almost certainly don’t have fatal familial insomnia. It’s been documented in only 28 families worldwide, and only five of those are in the United States.

2. FIRST AND SECOND SLEEP

The usual eight hours a night aren't the only way to snooze. Historians have found that before the industrial age, people actually slept in two parts. The first sleep, right after sundown, was for a few hours. Around midnight or 1 a.m., folks would get up, have a bite to eat, converse, possibly make love, and eventually settle down for their second sleep.

Virginia Tech historian Roger Ekirch theorizes that the two-part system is actually more natural for humans, and that many sleep problems stem from our insistence that we stay in bed for eight hours straight.

“For most of evolution we slept a certain way,” sleep psychologist Gregg Jacobs told the BBC. “Waking up during the night is part of normal human physiology.” So if you're wide awake tonight, don't beat yourself up. Take the opportunity to live like your ancestors.

3. HYPNIC JERK

You’re drifting off to sleep. It’s peaceful, your white noise machine is on, and all is well with the world. Until it’s not. You’re jolted back to awareness with a peculiar muscle spasm. What just happened?

You just experienced a hypnic jerk—and you’re not alone. Researchers believe they happen to some 70 percent of the population. What causes the condition isn’t clear, but it can be worsened by anxiety, over-exertion before sleep, or caffeine.

And while most people have experienced a hypnic jerk, just be glad you likely haven’t had to deal with exploding head syndrome. 

4. DEMON ON YOUR CHEST?

Some 40 percent of all people have experienced at least one episode of sleep paralysis—disturbed REM sleep in which you feel trapped and unable to move. While the experience can be terrifying, it isn’t actually dangerous, according to sleep experts.

Multiple cultures have explained the phenomenon by claiming that demons are pinning down the sleeper (in medieval legends, we know those demons as a succubus or incubus). The human brain wants to explain the unexplainable—and if it has to blame evil supernatural forces, so be it.

5 most block buster hit songs , translated

Foreign language hits don’t often break onto Top 40 airwaves, but when they do, they’re usually loaded with earworms and make terrific karaoke fodder. But when we start singing along, what exactly are we saying? Probably not what you think. Here are five hit songs in other languages and what the heck they actually mean once they’re translated...

1. NENA, “99 LUFTBALLONS”

Run Nena’s chirpy 1983 pop song through a translator, and the cheery German hit gets pretty sinister, pretty quickly. Nena guitar slinger Carlos Karges drew inspiration for the anti-war protest tune when he watched an army of balloons get released at a 1982 Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin.

His musings on the balloons’ ascension over the Berlin Wall (“99 balloons on their way to the horizon / People think they’re UFOs from space”) and into the Soviet Bloc gave way to lyrics about war and paranoia—99 luftballons become 99 fighter jets, war ministers, and years of war as the hysterical overreactions in the lyrics escalate.

Nena recorded an English version, retitled “99 Red Balloons,” but argued that the satirical rewrite felt unfaithful to the German meaning. The less cutesy German cut became an American smash, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

2. RITCHIE VALENS, “LA BAMBA”

Like “The Twist” or “The Cha Cha Slide,” “La Bamba” steals its name from a dance—one it doesn’t bother teaching listeners how to do. The term comes from the Spanish verbbambolear (to swing), and apparently all we need to dance it is “una poca de gracia” (a little grace). Valens doesn’t give away the moves, but la bamba is a traditional wedding dance for newlyweds in Veracruz. The Ritchie Valens hit started as a Mexican folk tune hailing from Veracruz and is now a mariachi staple.

3. PSY, "GENTLEMAN"

The “Gangnam Style” rapper staved off one-hit wonder status when his video for “Gentleman” caught fire on YouTube. While “Gangnam Style” mocked Seoul’s pseudo-high-class district, “Gentleman” satirizes boorish boys claiming to be gentlemen who are anything but. The Korean sensation keeps his chorus classy, shouting, “I’m a mother-father gentleman” instead of another F-word that fits the blank.

Psy’s satirical (okay, silly) lyrics translate into eyebrow-raising one-liners like, “I’m a cool guy with courage, spirit and craziness” and “Damn girl! I’m a party mafia!” Like the social consciousness of “Gangnam Style,” Psy’s subversive sense of humor might only exist for the love of a good translator, save for a music video where a gleeful Psy plays ungentlemanly pranks on unsuspecting women.

4. FALCO, “ROCK ME AMADEUS”

Falco’s only number one stateside hit was a synthpop love letter to countryman Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who Falco describes as “ein Punker” (a punk), “ein Rockidol” (a rock idol), and “ein Mann der Frauen” (a women’s man). Taking a few pages from the book of period drama Amadeus, Falco painted the composer as a rock ‘n’ roll rebel and a prodigy from Vienna who drank, got the girls, and wrote totally punk symphonies.

5. LOS DEL RIO, “MACARENA”

After mumbling a whole bunch of Spanish words, “Hey, Macarena!” is a fun thing to shout in the dance hit’s chorus, until you realize you’re shouting the name of a girl cheating on her boyfriend. When Vitorino, Macarena’s beau, enlists the army (“en la jura de bandera de muchacho”), she takes up with his two of his friends (“se la dió con dos amigos”).

So when the chorus kicks in a second time with “Dale la cuerpo alegria Macarena,” ("Give happiness to your body, Macarena"), there’s some serious double entendre going on—it’s probably not just the dancing Los Del Rio are singing about. Poor Vitorino: Even with the army angle cut from the U.S. remix, Macarena still cheats when he goes out of town for a weekend.

June 5, 2013 - 8:00pm