atonia

muscular weakness

TRANSLATION

atonia = eingeschränkte Muskelkontrolle, die durch Probleme mit den Nerven, den Muskeln oder den Bereichen des Gehirns verursacht wird, die die motorischen Funktionen und den Muskeltonus regulieren

STATISTICS

IN THE PRESS

“Sometimes the mind in sleep gets caught in loops of half-dreaming, half-thinking repetition, usually revolving around a stressful situation from waking life, which can generate intense feelings of frustration, powerlessness and fear. This too may have a physiological component involving the ATONIA (general muscular paralysis) of REM sleep. But it also reflects a deep human anxiety, going back to the Greek myth of Sisyphus, that we can become trapped in an endless cycle of futility.”

Mona Chalabi — The Guardian ‘What do dreams mean?’

Did you
know?

 

atonia
noun

- lack of normal tone or strength

- lack of normal muscular tension or tonus

Free Dictionary / Dictionary dot com


WORD ORIGIN

The word "atonia" derives from the Greek a- (α-) — a prefix meaning "without" or "lack of" and tonos (τόνος) meaning "tension", "tone", or "vigour".

The roots combine to form the meaning "lack of normal muscular tone or tension" denoting weakness and reduced muscle control due to neurological or muscular dysfunction.


KNOCK-OUT NOVELIST!

The Nobel Prize-winning chemist Emil Fischer was once approached by the novelist Hermann Sudermann, who wished to thank him for his discovery of veronal (sleeping pills). "You know it’s so efficient, I don't even have to take it”, he declared. "It's enough that I see it on my nightstand."

"What a coincidence,” Fischer replied, "when I have problems falling asleep, I take one of your novels. As a matter of fact,… it's enough that I see one of your wonderful books on my nightstand and I then immediately fall asleep!"


SYNONYMS

- for the verb “to sleep”:

be catching some zzz’s, to be dead to the world (in dreamland, in the arms of Morpheus, out cold, out like a light), bed down for the night, catch 40 winks, crash out, doze/drift (off), flake out, get some shut-eye (one's quotient, your beauty rest/sleep), go beddy-byes (night-night), go to the Land of Nod, hit the feathers (the hay, the pillow, the sack), keel over, kip, knock/konk out, lapse into oblivion, nap, nod off, pass out, siesta, sleep like a baby (a log), snooze, take a nap (forty winks), turn in, zonk out


SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation, say something like:

"Yoga and meditation often promote a state of bodily ATONIA, helping individuals unwind and de-stress."


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