Why Do We Sleep? | Episode 1207 | Closer To Truth
Why do we spend so much of our lives not awake? Do dreams mean anything? What do sleeping and dreaming reveal about consciousness? Featuring interviews with Robert Stickgold, Patrick McNamara, Deirdre Barrett, and Nicholas Humphrey.
Season 12, Episode 7 - #CloserToTruth
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Closer To Truth host Robert Lawrence Kuhn takes viewers on an intriguing global journey into cutting-edge labs, magnificent libraries, hidden gardens, and revered sanctuaries in order to discover state-of-the-art ideas and make them real and relevant.
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Closer to Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.
#Dreams #Consciousness
We sleep to escape the nightmare of being awake!
Sleeps weird. Most days I wake up feeling the same, but once in a great while I wake up and immediately notice I feel superb, emotionally balanced, confident, centered etc, just in a state of peace, feeling like I think I should always feel. But those days are extremely rare. I don't know why or what brings on days like this, only that they occur randomly after a night of sleep. I've thought maybe it's due to what I was dreaming, or somehow my hormones found a balance during sleep, idk, but occasionally something happens during sleep that totally alters how I feel. I wish I knew what so I could recreate it, would change my life.
Exactly. I am often treated nicely, like i'm some important person in my dreams, it is so weird, I wake up (3-5 times out of 10?) feeling this warm, happy, nice 'supported' feeling, like there are a group who are assuring me everything is ok? or that,. it is like you just left a great party where everybody was nice yo you? (I assume, no one has e er been nice to me in real life, my parents abandoned me at age 8... Abused, raped, bullied, terrible horrible broken child hood.. BUT I hitchhiked to college, worked 2 jobs to pay, taught myself to play Violin, Piano, to do Painting, Sculpting, Computer Programming, Software Development, and now I create vast complex worlds in VR. I think 'they' (my dream people) helped me 'not need' the people 'here'. and made it all 'ok'... if that makes any sense... ; ")
@@WoodysAR oh gosh, thank you for sharing, that's an amazing story. I usually don't remember my dreams, but yea maybe like you I have good dreams and I wake feeling the effects. And yes actually when I wake on those days it feels like I was in a positive situation where things went very well, something not so normal in real life. If this is what happens then I wish I could create my dreams, or at least remember them. And good job becoming an ar vr dev. That's incredible and something I've wanted to do myself, but it's way over my head. But I see what is coming in that space, and you are in a perfect position for it being a dev.
Perhaps dreams are reflections of our consciousness, you experience that which is relative to you in some way through a combination of things you love, hate, saw, felt etc. maybe to remind us of what effect it had on us by over exaggerating some of those non specific experiences or thoughts which we may not recollect but we may act differently the next time they're presented in a subconscious way, or perhaps it's just consciousness undergoing repair which goes inline with other types of repairs as we sleep.
I've noticed work, diet, and lifestyle / emotional situation all play a role in both sleep and waking up. For instance, working in the restaurant industry (high stress, high energy, low exercise mostly, high caffeine, and late night shifts), I couldn't fall asleep prior to 2 a.m. and woke up around 10 - 11 a.m. I never lasted more than a few years at any job due to it and was very irritable. Yet while serving as an infantryman (low stress mostly, moderate energy mostly, excessive exercise, low caffeine, and early morning shifts generally) I found that I could get by with only 4 - 6 hours of sleep for years and could withstand prolonged deployments without difficulties in comparison to others who were younger (though I had the high stress background at this point too).
Just watched this. Love all the different series. I've noticed since I retired my sleep patterns and dreaming have changed drastically. I no longer have to sleep to a schedule. I go to bed when I'm tired, 10pm, 11pm staying up till 2 am sometimes. When I wake up knowing I don't have to get up I can find myself in a fantastical dream state and dream for another hour or so, sometimes vividly remembering parts of the dream before lying in bed and thinking ok I should get up now. I love this new found 'consciousness' Sometimes if I look back at old photos I can summon all sorts of dream memories. Fascinating stuff.
I've been thinking about this stuff all my life, nice to have such a good program to relate toi
Same. It's astonishing that the brain developed enough self awareness to want to examine and understand itself. The brain even named itself.
It would be interesting to know if people can contact other consciousness entities in dreams.
I communicate with my beautiful son Daniel19 who left in 2021..He has visited atleast 6 times now and it's the most breathtaking places he takes me..We speak telepathically and when we hold hands I can feel his skin..He also gives me messages to make my life better without him being here🙏😘🙏
I think this channel is very underrated
I don't believe we're not conscious when we sleep but rather that we don't recall some of what's going on while we are asleep. Perhaps it's a type of short term amnesia designed for a purpose we don't know.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that has laid in bed with their eyes closed and began fantasizing about something, and then fell asleep and dreamed about that exact same scenario. Perhaps dreams are a way we entertain ourselves while we wait for our bodies to repair and rejuvenate themselves.
I’ve learnt how to analyse my dreams....it’s the bits and pieces of memories, things I do in a certain period etc....then it gets messed up creatively when I sleep 😂😅😇
The Woman Doc is spot on accurate. I don't seem to ever have nightmared, instead, I usually have these dreams, people are always so nice to me,. Like I am someone they all like look up to? or.. want to keep happy? Often I will wake up, and be trying to remember the specific details of a dream,. unable to, even a little,,. but can still feel the warm, sated, happy, fulfilled, theraputic 'love' feeling that happens,. I don't remember WHAT only that it was nice and made me feel... good,...
Thar is definitely sumthin to this. In my field of special propulsion I have made great discoveries. First thing in the morning as soon as I wake up is when I have a moment of clarity and the answer to something that I have been working on is suddenly clear to me.
During major life problems I found dreams as an escape route and actively wanted to remember their details in the morning or wished going back. I have interpreted many of my dreams as symbolically reflecting my worries and finally I have cases of nested dreams where I dreamt I was dreaming inside the dream.
I noticed long time ago that when I'm about to fall sleep my brain starts to repeat patterns that you did during the day to improve them, for example when I was learning piano my brain started to repeat those patterns by itself to improve them, that happened also when I was learning English and when I play a video game, for example recently I've been playing call of duty on my Xbox and in the night just before I fall asleep completely, my brain starts to repeat this patterns of learning, in the game would be aiming, reaction, strategies, etc.
Sleep +1 .... Best part of my day.
When I read a book, and then see the movie years later, the reading was always better. Our own imagination.
I think because in our imagination the stories, settings, and characters are fluid and have no fixed form so they can adapt to our emotional and mental state. Yet in movies we see a fully formed and hard fixed so the settings and characters become disappointing ( because they're constricted) as opposed to how fluid they were in our minds and imagantions. IDK that's my thought.
Same goes with songs, the songs which i didn't watch videos of connects in a better way.
Dont think to much on why we sleep but try and figure out how we wake up and why !
I suffered from sleep paralysis throughout certain periods of my life. I haven't experienced it in years, fortunately. During one of my episodes years ago, I attempted to use sleep paralysis as a gateway to lucid dreaming. I was actually able to have lucid dreams with mild "control", I guess. Nothing elaborate, just the usual "let's fly now" type stuff. I eventually stopped because it was disrupting my sleep too much. It's very strange what your mind will do while you're asleep. Sleep paralysis is weird (and frightening) enough, but to use it as a gateway to the lucid dreaming world is a trip.
when i go to sleep, and i have no dreams, or in between dreams, when i think of nothing, i feel like i don't exist, then if i stopped to be, i would never know i was, and yet i am here, each time i wake up, and i feel like a new man, because i don't wannabe, a copy of memories
In ancient times our most distant ancestors were extremely simple sea creatures floating in the water. They didn't have eyes but could sense the sun. I think the eye was being developed at this time as the dark pigment sensitive to the sun would later evolve into some precursor to the retina. When the waves rose they were "awake," perhaps because they were closer to the sun; the retina was being formed. The eye was being formed. When the waves descended they further from the light; they were "asleep." How does this origin story of sleep inform what we know of sleep today?
As long as I am witnessing change.... I am dreaming... The real Self is changeless...
What a wonderful GENTLEMAN and good thoughts 👏 Brother James 🙏
I stayed up late and skipped sleep just to watch this.
I've noticed I learn and understand new things better if I step away from it and take a break when I feel my brain is getting overloaded. Like learning software. You start taking in information but it's new and unfamiliar and confusing. Take a break and then come back and it's not new anymore, familiar and often less confusing..
Awesome discussion! Thanks RL :)
If we were ever to elucidate the reasons why we sleep we would learn so much about why we sleep.
@Scott Halloween The "we are tied to the electric field" thing is cool. The bird nest example I might see as the bird (or other, like human) having two focuses with their attention. One is the general outward appreciation of what's in Nature, call it observation with little or no ego interference (this is more for humans than birds, but birds might have the equivalent of a flock ego) and the other is creation in the local environment, in order to achieve something. Here, the materials used dictate what image is derived, the nest is what happens when you use what's available, twigs. The dreaming thing to me is like a power station feeding the grid that is on idle. It's practical to keep the machine running rather than stop and start it. The brain machine is a calculating of the moments that come in as sensory info. The picture derived, like a graph shape, is the picture in our heads. The reason there is so much repetition in the world is that it's filler, to add more is to build a more realistic picture. News junkies have found the sweet spot where just enough variation comes in, along with the reassuring familiarity of both the news people and the periodic time events. These three things, and the equipment to do the calculus (which might happen externally, like a flock) and the moment. All embedded in the electric field?
We don't know for sure we're unconscious when we're asleep. Being unconscious and having a memory blackout feel the same later, there's just a blank. Maybe we aren't unconscious, maybe we just stop recording what's happening.
I suggest people who are asleep are conscious because of the brain being activ. As well as people who we really think are unconscious, actually are. The next question would be what this consciousness actually is.
Robert Kuhn! Thank you
I’ve been a web designer for many years and I often dream in code (HTML, CSS, Java) ... all I see is code like I’m looking at a computer screen that covers my entire field of view. These “code” dreams often help me solve solutions to problems I have with websites I’m currently working on.
I was just about to say something non-believing,. but, upon a moments reflection.. I have spent a lifetime 'sleeping on it' to solve problems myself! it is the same for playing Violin, for creating VR games in Unreal Engine, for learning directions, adapting recipes, solving problems,. So you are having Matrix Code dreams huh. is the text geen? (there it is theres my comnent! LoL ;) ✌
Sleep is a short break from our messy lives,it's a gift from God to give us relax and to make us ready to face the new day drama .
When I was little my nightmares were about spiders or being in my dad's truck and it was driving itself. The Dolly Parton song about these boots were made for walking, I had a dream that a pair of boots were walking through the house. I woke up screaming. As an adult all of my nightmare are about tornadoes. I'm usually trying to hide in the basement and I can't find a good spot and the Tornado is getting closer. Most of my dreams are unpleasant. I've had lucid dreaming as well. I was aware I was in a dream and was actively thinking what I was going to do. A star wars creature was after me, I was aware it was a dream so I grabbed an ax and killed the creature. I woke up feeling great like I had solved a huge subconscious problem. I felt high the whole week.
This episode of yours reminds of the last 3 years of my high school and first 2 years of my 5 year engineering course. I made a habit of repeating everything in my mind that I l had studied during that day. I was not aware of anything you discussed in this episode. I did not know then if that practice made my memory strong. Till today I apply this practice when learning some golf swing motions. I do the movement in my mind and somehow my muscle memory changes from the old to the new.
Sleep is mysterious, but it's important to be emotionally balanced. Atleast for me.
That's the name of the last book I purchased, "why we sleep" by Matthew walker
I listen to that book on Audible everynight...before I call to sleep.
@YOO HOO doesn't matter, I love adventures
Mi discussions lo naku honestly nature vundhi ani judgment ivandi. HAPPY ga nidhrapothanu. AMEN.
Great.. watching this at 03:23 am
When we sleep its the closest to "back to the source" we can get and the furthest from .. consciousness
I learned to drive manual transmission in a dream. I have solved design problems many times in my dreams and often prefer to take a nap when I am stumped. I have had dreams that were premonitions as well. What about the idea that perhaps when we sleep we also have the ability to tap into a greater intelligence? Perhaps we are uploading information to the collective consciousness as well as learning from it during sleep?
Its true , I often get new ideas / solutions during sleep, or just before I go to sleep, can be quite an eye opener.
Not sure how an 'eye opener' can help you sleep. 😅
Sleep is our entrance to another deminsion. Proof of this is dreams. Death is entryway to another deminsion. You'll be far happier and successful. You've learned what to be aware of in this deminsion.
I have a rare condition where I only need 3 to 4 hours of sleep per day (not in a row) I’ve been like this since I was a child. On rare occasions when I sleep more then 5 hours in a row it makes me feel hung over and terrible all day. Does anyone else have a sleep pattern like this?
Maybe it’s all that ganja
siempre profundo y esceptico a la vez,bien david
I've been learning guitar since COVID, tried hard to get my fingers to position in difficult chords, after hours of frustration I go to sleep, - next morning the chords come smooth and easy.
Fascinating! 🤔
Dreams are our own screen savers
This is the 4th time I've started watching this segment . I go to sleep each time .
I've only just started the video, so I don't know if this will be mentioned, but the brain cells metabolize during the waking state, causing a build-up of metabolic toxins that must be gotten rid of. When we sleep at night this is when the brain has a chance to dispose of them. This isn't all sleep is good for, but it's a major part of it.
I always hear about how people have abstract dreams, but all of my usually seem pretty realistic. Im always in some sort of post apocalyptic scenario or a war. Sounds like a nightmare, but Im never scared. Im always just handling the situation.
I've always been interested in dreams. They seem to mean different things to different people. The most fascinating thing, to me, is precognitive dreams. How in the world does that work? And why? Especially if its a meaningless dream about non significant information. I've experienced one of that sort many years ago. I've never understood it. However, it was 100% accurate down to the finest detail. And I dreamed it two days before it happened. What's the meaning of that? It has always puzzled me.
Great as always. Still waiting for DMT episode tho. :)
Joe Rogan has entered the chat...
My brain doesn't work correctly unless I have been awake for 2 days
LOVEEEEEEEEEEE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU ROBERT
2 things. First. The woman said that sleep started with mamals. But, don't fish also sleep, and birds as well. I think (could be wrong) that insects also sleep. Second. Before the brain sleeps, it self anesthetizes itself. This so we don't physically react to various inputs and outputs that it's generating. The brain is sorting through your day and cataloging it by reinforcing stimulus of particular ganglion making them permanent or semi permanent. Since the frontal cortex (consciousness ) doesn't understand this filing system. When implemented during REM, it seems crazy to us. The brain solves this problem by introducing a harmone that not only wakes us up, but erases all but the strongest dreams.
Wow i dream every night,now i know why im tired all the time,this shined on a lot of things for me.I also cannot remember any of my childhood or past i wonder if this has anything to do with sleep as well??.
Cause I'm exhausted, all the damn time! Mystery solved.
I regularly watch your series and they are really good and informative. By interviewing so many PhD 's , you give real insights from different perspectives , but please do not deprive us , if you find the real truth. And in case if your search is not over , it is my humble suggestion meet Swami Anubhavanand, you will find his lectures on KZhead but that are for masses . And not person like you , he is well versed in English, so you will not have problems in communication. He doesn't work for money or fame or as a healer , so not very much known . All , I can say that he will be able to consolidate , all the perspectives and arrive to logical and true conclusions. And that is your purpose. Hope you read this comment, Maybe the search you have started have happy and conclusive end . Best of luck
REM sleep, I believe, helps creativity, helps one to recognize issues and possible solutions, helps one to possibly explain why we do what we do, and may recognize conflicts and realize solutions. Lucid dreams allow one to realize he or she is dreaming and can wake up at will and give us insights as to why we may dream what we dream.
Many years ago in a book I was reading I saw referenced another book called 'an experiment with time' J W Dunne I believe is the author, IIRC it was written in the 1920's or thereabouts. I've never read it, but apparently it suggests that we have precognitive dreams, dreams of future events. I've no clue if this has ever been documented to be true but just imagine if it were true, that would surely throw everything we know up in the air. Interesting, one day I might buy that book. Also this is one of the best channels on youtube, I really enjoy it, thanks :)
Plenty of anecdotal evidence on precognitive dreams (e.g. look into what inspired Carl Jung’s “Collective Unconscious” idea), but 1. The contents can be difficult to share 2. If a precognitive dream serves as a warning (i.e. doesn’t happen because the dreamer took or accurately conveyed the advice), is it less accurate? 3. Every individual human experience depends on countless variables working together-so it is rare that a “recordable” precognitive dream can be verified. So when you consider a hypothetical science that must found assertions on low-success percentages, it becomes difficult to codify things like the mechanism and mechanics of consciousness. Which is just to say: if we are to learn anything about consciousness, we will have to accept and accommodate things that have long been derided.
If nobody ever slept we wouldn't have asked "Why we don't sleep?" We are asking status coup trying to see how we are designed. It is a long journey to go.
I came here because my experiences on Out of body travel made me awake The portal to this higher realms, dimensions, is within us, it is the seat of the soul, also known as pineal gland, third eye. once you meditated in your dreams and focus your Consiousness in the middle of the eyes, it will open up a like spiral wormhole tunnel and your Consiousness will travel through it in the speed of light and you will see how vast our universe really is.
Interesting comment by Nicholas Humphrey on dreams and role playing. They say all of those people in our dreams are actually us, or we are staging our own play or production.
we sleep to restore our minds and bodies. It helps to heal ourselves and give us strength to exist and stay healthy and also helps to resolve conflicts and feel as good as we can.
I've thought a lot about this issue and I've come to the conclusion that we sleep to accumulate the energy of consciousness we need for wakefulness. Consciousness is a very subtle form of energy that needs a special mode of consciousness to be stored. That's why all beings have some form of lethargy designed to accumulate the energy of consciousness.
i used to be a meth addict and went as long as 8 days with no sleep, at that point no matter how much more meth i did i still ended up collapsing to get the sleep which lasted about 24 hours of sleep after a week of being up
Sleep is the best part of life
I really like dreaming when I sleep! I never have anything like a bad dream or a nightmare.
nice video bro
Dreams are FREE will, willing to Be, and other practical reasons, the like of prompting the other still sleeping neurons to wake up the others.
im going to show it to my parents, this. They hate my sleeping habits. lol.
The main reason we sleep is because our prime existence is spiritual, and most of our soul stays in the next world, even though a small part is here and attached to our physical presence here. However our soul, which is comprised of several parts, must be re-united regularly in the next world, otherwise we are not able to function. There is also a subsidiary reason, namely that the body can carry out repairs and maintain brain functioning. However this is not the main function of sleep, whereas the spiritual side is.
The body needs sleep. Living beings need to recharge. We usually have no control over sleep coming upon us. It has to happen. Otherwise, we get sick as pointed out in this video. Its a must...and I'm grateful for it. Why do we sleep? Because we have to!
Look up the decalcification of the pineal gland and how it solidifies with aluminum. I did not dream for 30 years while having Lyme's disease which prevented melatonin production. I started eating and consuming watercress which is the number one way to soften up this gland which is directly related to dreaming. I have vivid dreams now 3 to 4 times at night remembering all of them with wild creativity. I found the aluminum to be the most destructive thing in our day to day lives jamming it into our lymphatic system with any purse print shoving it into our mouths with toothpaste and drinking water loaded with fluoride which is also aluminum.
I don’t fear after death because I experienced dreamless sleep and put under anesthesia for surgery
Deardra! ❤️❤️❤️
Robert I am exatly like You. Thanks dear Frind.
I once heard that sleep is the ultimate leap of faith. You go to bed each night assuming you will wake up in the morning. But that is by no means a certainty. But it is a belief that we rely on. And are dreams prophetic? Who knows. Since our minds are fooled all the time while we are awake, it is reasonable to assume that our dreams, which appear to be not ruled by logic, can also be fooled.
In the waking state, thoughts come 'automatically' in our minds. For example, i myself don't know what thought will come into my mind say after 10 minutes, 20 minutes etc. When thoughts come automatically to our mind, it 'seems' to us that we have consciouly 'thought' them. Similarly, while sleeping also thoughts come 'automatically' to our minds.
Battery needs recharging.
Could be something drains during day, whether physical, subconscious or conscious, that recharges at night like battery. Also could be something fills up during day, like storage, that has to be emptied so it can be filled up next day, perhaps memory capacity or some sensory capacity.
The computer simulation has to optimize and clean the unneeded memory, and download tomorrow's data
Sir can you do a video on yoga? Isn't it worth knowing? If you have already did that, I will be glad to have a link if possible
Eddie Murray, I think it is great, also - !!!
So then, anything that sleeps, is conscious. Hmmm, interesting. Do insects sleep, trees? Great video!
This guy really chased his dreams
I got a lot of criticism over the decades for my sleep ins but those ppl are all looking pretty rough around the edges compared to me now. Its the equivalent of a lithium battery, if you use 100% you get approximately 1000 cycles over 3 years before its capacity reduces to under 80%, if you use the middle 60% you get 3000 to 5000 cycles over 10 years. Do you want to be operating below 80% capacity by the time you are 40 or 50?
Time still seems to pass in sleep, albeit faster. I wouldn't call sleeping being entirely unconscious. I've had seizures before where I immediately went from talking to my friend to them freaking out because Id just had a seizure... No time passed, it was immediately from my perspective even tho I was missing like 5 minutes. That doesn't really happen during sleep
Tell me why I sleep for 8 hrs,but I only am aware of when I closed my eyes and then, when I opened them. Where did 8 hrs go? Why did it seem so short?
I always just thought the reason was simple...we dream to fill in the hours of darkness in the jungle. Otherwise,being hyper aware in the dark blackness our ancestors lived in would be too much stress. As long as the Earth has been round life has had hours of darkness to kill. Dreams are our life's theater.
This statement is deeper than it appears. Thank you for posting.
Ultimately, i think dreams have as much importance to our brain functions than conciousness. They could be both just the echoe of things that happen in our body and we have no control of. We believe we are in control but neurocience says that we become aware of our actions and thoughts long miliseconds after they are executed. We could be completely automated and both just sub-products. Cool thing is: If our own awareness can affect our feelings hence our future behavior, then it does have a function, just like dreams. you can´t detach them from the experience.
I have solved problems in my dreams many many times in my life. I don't need an expert to tell me if problem solving happens when you sleep.
Unconsciousness is far more mysterious than consciousness.
bc i can :)
In sleep research labs they have found out, that many people do have simple abstract contents of consciousness also during "deep sleep". Just saying:)
A British scientist did sleep experiments as a result of World War II experiences. It was found that no person could do more than six hours of radar duty - schedules had to be changed as a result - because the constant "whup" of the radar put anybody to sleep, including soldiers who could stay awake for three days on bombing missions. The British scientists had enough money to conduct private experiments. He gave a sample group of people complete freedom to do anything they wanted and they had constant access to the gym. They did not need sleep. Many of them went weeks and even months without sleep. But, if even only one repetitive sentence was added to their weekly questionnaire, they would immediately fall completely asleep. Dreams freshen the mind from the dulling effects of repetition. Dreams are not so much bizarre as highly non-repetitious. Originality freshens the mind. Sleeping and dreaming are to freshen the mind from repetition fog.
Consciousness is the opposite of a Computer 🖥
THE REASON WE ALL HUMANS SLEEP WE GET TIRED AND RESTED.
I like dreams. Its the only time I get to fantasize
Sleep i think is a return to a realm we knew you close your eyes and we'll something is happening I think in the beginning we were just thoughts in a field and the brain makes use of our thoughts or aides even feel as though our thoughts don't need a physical body
In this, there are sufficient proofs for people who can hear.
Well, i struggle to sleep some few hours.
I think I am Robert Lawrence Kuhn. Whatever category of human he is. That’s me.
I love sleeping. I have to sleep 8-10 hours a night . If I cant sleep enough, I feel sick all day.
Implied but not specifically covered was the "realness" of dreams. Being, perhaps, so focused as to appear real. It would've been nice to hear some takes on that. Also glossed over is the cohesiveness of the dream landscape, per say, very unlike normal waking. It appears to me the imagination brings the landscape and reality to fruition for the experience to be had in an apparently "real" experience. No matter what you think, you can imagine it and to imagine is to experience... in varying intensities & vividness. As it appears to me anyway.
Also, it is implied the our brain paralyzes us during sleep. What if, what guides our motor functions turns into another direction and the result is no motor functions. An analogy, say, the more we focus using the minds eye then we can't use our actual eyes because the focus has shifted internally... pun intended.