Neurology: changing brain patterns to assist mind awake body asleep?

[SkepticBoy]

This is for anyone who know something about the brain and its neurology.

The Hippocampus is said to be the part of the brain that assists primarily with sleeping. In terms of brain neurology, what would be the best way to help obtain "mind awake body asleep" state. By this I mean what would be the best way to stimulate the brain and where exactly on the brain to get to mind awake body asleep.

[Ranger sage]

Brainwave entrainment. Using binaural beats, or isochronic tones. You can download binaural beats or you can create your own. I do the latter, using audacity. I ramp the beat frequency from 14 hz to 3 hz over a 20 min period and hang in the 3 - 4hz zone for 30 - 40 min. In this state your mind is awake and your body asleep. It takes practice, sticking on a beat once or twice will take you to this theta/delta state, but it takes some practice to stay concious throughout - like walking a tightrope between asleep and awake. The specific neurology I am unsure. A binaural beat will produce a frequency following response in your brain - your hemispheres will balance out and work in unison. Probably mostly to do with the corpus callosum connecting the two hemispheres. The latest development is isochronic tones. I have dabbled with these and they are just as effective, research is ongoing. The only way you will find out is to use yourself as the lab rat. Learn how to create binaural beats, and practive with several different carrier frequencies. Pick out which ones work for you and disregard the ones which don't. use them consistently and assess the results after a month. Then tweak your beats so they are even more effective, and keep teaking as you need to. There is a bit more to this than what I have said, it's a basic reply I hope it helps.

[personalreality]

your neurotransmitter levels play a role as well.  particularly serotonin.  it is low at night, making focusing (and not falling asleep) difficult.  it's at it's highest first thing in the morning (which might make you too alert).  afternoon serotonin levels have been ideal for me.