Inspire Wellness By Embracing Your Unique 6th Sense

Most of us are aware of the five senses which help us survive in the world. Touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste are crucial to perceiving and processing our environment. Yet, few of us fully understand our “sixth sense.”

That sense, called interoception, is the internal awareness of our body’s state. It aids in the perception and interpretation of internal signals that regulate important bodily functions such as thirst, hunger, heart rate, and body temperature.

We don’t always pay attention to this highly vital sense. So, how does it guarantee that all of the body’s systems are functioning properly?

It accomplishes this by signaling when our bodies are out of balance. It makes us grab a drink when we’re thirsty or instructs us to remove our sweater when we’re too hot.

Our mental health depends on interoception as well. This is because it plays a role in our psychology, such as decision-making, social skills, and emotional wellness.

Many mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, have been linked to impaired interoception. It could also clarify why many disorders have similar symptoms, such as insomnia or exhaustion.

Interoception is important in many areas of human health. Yet, little is understood about the different experiences men and women have regarding their bodies’ internal messages.

“Sixth Sense” Research

Research into whether cisgender men and women perceive and interpret interoceptive messages from their lungs, heart, and stomach in distinct ways has shown conflicting results so far. Discovering disparities is essential because it may help us better understand our mental and physical health differences.

Data from research on interoception in men and women has been aggregated by sciencealert.com to create a clearer picture. Participants in some trials were asked to count their heartbeats. Others were asked if a flashing light appeared when their stomach tightened. Some were asked to determine if they noticed a change when inhaling and exhaling into a device which disrupted regular breathing.

Interoception does differ between men and women, according to their findings. When compared to males, women were considerably less accurate on heart-focused activities and some lung-focused exercises. Other characteristics, such as how hard individuals worked throughout the activity or variations like weight and blood pressure, did not appear to explain these disparities.

The results for other tasks were less obvious, despite the fact that substantial variations between heartbeat tasks were discovered. This might be due to the fact that just a small amount of research has looked at lung and stomach factors. It’s possible that it’s too early to know if men and women perceive these signals differently.

Men vs. Women

Such data may assist in understanding why problems such as depression and anxiety are more common in females than in males from as early as adolescence. Personality, hormones, genes, stress, and early hardship are among explanations that have been presented to answer this.

Since we know how crucial interoception is for health, it’s likely that disparities might help explain why more women than males suffer from anxiety and depression. This is because interoception problems can impair a variety of areas, including social, emotional, and cognitive performance, all of which are established risk factors for a wide array of mental health issues.

Understanding the variations in how men and women perceive interoceptive signals might be useful in the treatment of mental illness.

Current research suggests that enhancing interoception might help. Other research suggests that males utilize interoceptive signals, such as those from the heart, more than females when analyzing emotions. Additionally, women are said to pay greater attention to interoceptive cues than males, according to research.

Improving Your Sixth Sense

This might indicate that treatments aimed at improving interoception may be more effective for certain people, while other strategies may be more effective for others. Future study will be required.

We don’t know what creates these variances, despite the fact that we know they exist. Researchers have a few explanations, including physiological and hormonal differences between men and women.

It might also be due to variations in how men and women are trained to think about feelings and interoceptive cues such as pain.

Understanding all of the elements that influence interoceptive capacity might help researchers develop better therapies for a variety of mental health issues in the future.

In the meantime, it’s good to know that our “sixth sense” is a real thing and that it is possible to learn from, react to, and prepare for the interoception signals your body provides.