One of the least appreciated and least understood organ in our body is the gate that connects chemicals to our brain. They taught us that there is no connection (Blood Brain Barrier), but this was just an approximation. Brain, is similar to medieval town surrounded by walls, that would not survived if the gates were always closed. Chemicals get to our brain both to feed it and control it. As the gate keeper in medieval times was super important for the city, so is this organ that we will call Sleeprane (from the combination of Sleep and Membrane). Similar to medieval town, we close the gates at night when we go to sleep. And similarly to a large town- we may have multiple gates- it is not a single isolated place in our body. Propofol, the drug that is used to put us to sleep during anesthesia is suddenly closing the gates. If the gates are open too much we have problems: sleepless nights and auto immune diseases. If the gates are closed too much we have memory problems, like Alzheimer patients. If the gates are wide open we have various risks that can manifest themselves like ADHD. Many of our problems steam from dysfunctionality of the Sleeprane. Music is a lot of stimuli that brain needs to process so it is initially opens Sleeprane, to get nutrients. The effect of it is similar to coffee, except music unlike coffee wears out pretty quickly. Never heard of somebody who complains “could not go to sleep because had to much music in the morning”. Too much monotony music tells our brain that the noise is to be ignored, it is not worth processing, and the nutrients- close the gate and go to sleep. By maintaining constant level of alertness during musical practice we learn how to regulate the Sleeprane. The more consistently we can play with Sleeprane nearly closed the better for us.
There is some difference between Sleeprane in man and women. Man have a thicker Sleeprane (to be able to quickly rest on a voyage) while women who need to stay awake to watch a child, including hormonal communication during pregnancy. This difference may explain why some diseases like MS are more popular in women while others like Parkinson are more popular in men, and why women need more Propofol for the same effect. This difference is likely causing slightly different music perception between men and women who may need less dynamic music to open to it and stay longer engaged by it.
Let’s look at the difference between human and dolphin brain. The two hemispheres for dolphin are clearly separated and each is surrounded by a separate membrane/sleeprane. That is why dolphins have ability to sleep with a half of their brains. This is required for them because of effort of breathing requires movement. While fully resting half of a brain is not feasible for humans we should try to engage in exercises that allow part of our brain to rest while the other is engaged in music is a good meditative practice. The most intense musical experience comes from musicians who suddenly wake up during their performance and ask “What time it is?”. It may be related to fact that instead of frontal lobe that is also responsible for planning they use more of Occipital Lobe and Cerebellum. The point made here is that while different parts of the brain may be involved in creating music or listening to music, optimally we should not try to maximally engage all different parts, as this may be both harmful to our ability to enjoy music. The concept of “minimal necessary movement” (as for dolphins resurfacing for breath) is a key technique used by musicians.
