Parasympathetic Branch
Parasympathetic Dominants often use sleep to overcome energy losses following periods of sustained alertness.
The Autonomic Nervous System
• The sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system is responsible for functions that require focus and decision making. It’s the branch that speeds up when you need to go fast. It goes into high gear when an emergency situation requires quick thinking and reflexes, spurts of energy, hyper vigilance, and rapid heart rate - a need to “fight or flee fast”, the fight or flight reflex, so when you sense danger, it’s your sympathetic that prepares you to do battle or run like hell. The body functions that are not crucial to your survival at the time are decelerated or inactivated - so energy can be delivered …show more content…
The parasympathetic branch is the restorative side. When the racing heart slows down, the digestive system begins to process food, the excretory system goes back to excreting wastes, and a normal sleep cycle is activated.
When the 2 branches are balanced, life happens in normal cycles.
2 neurotransmitters, acetylcholine and norepinephrine, are used to communicate within the autonomic system. Acetylcholine has parasympathetic effects (inhibiting), and norepinephrine (adrenaline) has sympathetic (stimulating) effects. For example, adrenaline stimulates perspiration, heart rate, and respiration - and can literally cause your body hair to stand on end.
The sympathetic and parasympathetic tend to go out of balance in the western cultures. The expression, “taking my work to bed with me” implies that the sympathetic side has become too active and is dominating the rest and digest system. The expression, “can’t get it together” implies that the parasympathetic has become too active - and is dominating the act and react side. A balanced person flows in and out of both branches without falling out of the …show more content…
It distributes the energy produced by the manufacturers to muscles and tissues over which we have conscious control - and to the ones over which we don’t. Everyone has an autonomic nervous system, but not everyone has 1 branch that dominates the whole energy (ATP) distribution process, literally monopolizing how energy gets allocated.
• Sympathetic Dominants can override energy shortages and power failures - like home-alarm systems with battery back up to sound the alarm and notify authorities - even during big power outages. Sympathetic Dominants can be like Ever Ready batteries.
• Parasympathetic Dominants, on the other hand, can have shorts in their ATP distributing systems and not sound the alarm, even when the house is being burglarized in the light of day. “Asleep at the switch” is the apt term for them when they’re too far out of balance.
• Sympathetic Dominants aren’t all nervous wrecks, nor are all Parasympathetic Dominants lazy. It’s a matter of choice and
The Autonomic Nervous System
• The sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system is responsible for functions that require focus and decision making. It’s the branch that speeds up when you need to go fast. It goes into high gear when an emergency situation requires quick thinking and reflexes, spurts of energy, hyper vigilance, and rapid heart rate - a need to “fight or flee fast”, the fight or flight reflex, so when you sense danger, it’s your sympathetic that prepares you to do battle or run like hell. The body functions that are not crucial to your survival at the time are decelerated or inactivated - so energy can be delivered …show more content…
The parasympathetic branch is the restorative side. When the racing heart slows down, the digestive system begins to process food, the excretory system goes back to excreting wastes, and a normal sleep cycle is activated.
When the 2 branches are balanced, life happens in normal cycles.
2 neurotransmitters, acetylcholine and norepinephrine, are used to communicate within the autonomic system. Acetylcholine has parasympathetic effects (inhibiting), and norepinephrine (adrenaline) has sympathetic (stimulating) effects. For example, adrenaline stimulates perspiration, heart rate, and respiration - and can literally cause your body hair to stand on end.
The sympathetic and parasympathetic tend to go out of balance in the western cultures. The expression, “taking my work to bed with me” implies that the sympathetic side has become too active and is dominating the rest and digest system. The expression, “can’t get it together” implies that the parasympathetic has become too active - and is dominating the act and react side. A balanced person flows in and out of both branches without falling out of the …show more content…
It distributes the energy produced by the manufacturers to muscles and tissues over which we have conscious control - and to the ones over which we don’t. Everyone has an autonomic nervous system, but not everyone has 1 branch that dominates the whole energy (ATP) distribution process, literally monopolizing how energy gets allocated.
• Sympathetic Dominants can override energy shortages and power failures - like home-alarm systems with battery back up to sound the alarm and notify authorities - even during big power outages. Sympathetic Dominants can be like Ever Ready batteries.
• Parasympathetic Dominants, on the other hand, can have shorts in their ATP distributing systems and not sound the alarm, even when the house is being burglarized in the light of day. “Asleep at the switch” is the apt term for them when they’re too far out of balance.
• Sympathetic Dominants aren’t all nervous wrecks, nor are all Parasympathetic Dominants lazy. It’s a matter of choice and