What Is Sleep?

What is Sleep?

We spend fully one-third of our lives asleep and it's a vital part of every person's life, but it's an activity that most people know very little about-- and we oftentimes even take this important need for granted. If you've ever been out of your usual sleeping schedule or have suffered from a lack of sleep, you know how critical a good night's sleep is. In order to improve the quality of your sleep it's important to understand what happens while we rest.
So, what exactly is sleep? Sleep as defined by dictionary.com is “to take the rest afforded by a suspension of voluntary bodily functions and the natural suspension, complete or partial, of consciousness; cease being awake.”2 We do know sleep is so vital to our survival that it's a matter of life and death. Laboratory rats that were deprived of sleep only lived two to three weeks.1 A basic sleep tip, therefore, would simply be: don't underestimate the importance of a good night's sleep.
The National Institute of Health acknowledges that even though we don't know the exact reason we sleep, it is something our bodies and mind must have. You might think that while we sleep so does our body and mind, yet even though we aren't aware of what's going on while we sleep, our bodies remain busy. In fact, some segments of our brains are even more active while we sleep.1
Sleep is regulated by a pair of systems in our body: the sleep-wake process and our circadian/internal rhythmic biological clock. These systems work in tandem both to make us feel tired, [preparing our bodies to sleep], and to help us feel awake during the day-- acting as a mechanism to drive our activity and rest. Changes in our daily routines, as well as any kind of stress [in addition to myriad other factors], can alter these sensitive systems and cause people to feel tired in the morning as well as unable to sleep at night. An important sleep tip to remember is that even something so small as missing an hour of sleep for a couple days can throw our internal systems entirely off-balance.
There are two types of sleep: non-rapid eye movement [NREM] and rapid eye movement [REM]. As we rest, we cycle between NREM and REM around every hour and a half. It's during REM sleep that dreaming, a vital part of sleep, occurs most often. Though we have barely begun to understand their importance and the reasons for them, they are surrounded by folklore-- such as the idea that eating spicy foods just before bed will give you strange dreams. In fact, a great tip to help you sleep better is to avoid eating or drinking anything at all for at least 2-3 hours before going to bed so that you fall asleep faster.3
If you feel tired throughout the day, if you can't fall asleep at night, or if you have some other problem affecting your sleep, "rest assured" that you're not alone: one out of nearly every four people in the United States suffers from some form of  sleep disorder. 3 Sleep problems can be caused by just one or a cavalcade of events and can occur at any age. The most common sleep disorders are:

Insomnia – inability or difficulty getting to sleep and staying in a resting state.
Sleep Apnea – sufferers will snore loudly while sleeping, stop breathing for a short time, then gasp for breath.
Narcolepsy – prevents people from entering a regular sleep/wake cycle, causing them to fall asleep uncontrollably.
Restless Leg Syndrome – causes a person's legs to have a sensation of tingling, only alleviated by moving, which interferes with sleep.4



Bibliography
1. Sleep. (n.d.) On Dictionary.com-- Retrieved May 11, 2009, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sleep
2. For Teachers: Why Sleep Is Important-- Retrieved May 11, 2009, from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/sleep/starslp/teachers/whysleep.htm
3. Sleep and Aging (Published March 16, 2005)-- Retrieved May 11, 2009, from
http://nihseniorhealth.gov/sleepandaging/aboutsleep/01.html
4. Can't Sleep? Science Is Seeking New Answers; CAM at the NIH Focus on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Volume XVII, Number 3: Summer 2005-- Retrieved May 11, 2009, from http://nccam.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2005_summer/sleep.htm