Modern researchers tell us that few people sleep well anymore, however sleep is all important in having a well-rounded successful and healthy life.
Good sleep means one's body undergoes all four sleep cycles to be considered complete--alpha, beta, delta, and theta.
Furthermore, doctors advise us to get at least eight hours of this good sleep per night.
For various reasons many of us get much less rest than that.
(Keep in mind that sleep is not simply a state of not being awake.
) "A natural cycle of rest and wakefulness dictates all sorts of biological functions," says Michael Twery, Ph.
D, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research in Bethesda, MD.
Sleep loss is associated with" ...
(the following): * Heart disease * Diabetes * Cancer * Obesity * Depression * Infections * Accidents *Source: This reference and many others about sleep can be found at WebMD©.
Wikipedia® defines sleep as "the state of natural rest...
a protective mechanism...
and also necessary for health and survival.
" Upon close inspection, sleep not only drops our conscious mind into a deep state of relaxation and rest, but scores of biochemical mechanisms are busily, yet quietly functioning inside.
A portion of the body is not really at rest, even during the deepest of sleeps.
What Happens During Sleep? 1.
Damage to cells, tissues and organs is repaired.
Cells do not live forever and those cells which cannot be saved are subject to apoptosis or cell death.
The body systematically rids you of those cells everyday and prepares the body to excrete them.
This is good and necessary internal housekeeping.
The body rids itself of unwanted, non-functioning and/or abnormal cells while it aggressively makes new, healthy ones.
Sleep is prime time for your body to concentrate on these important changes.
2.
Substances such as bio-chemicals, blood products and bone marrow are manufactured while you sleep.
As the body slows down during rest, it replenishes these vital, life-sustaining components.
Example: When you catch an infectious agent and blood components are needed for the Immune System to combat the invader, this system of renewal generates necessary immune fighting cells for the body.
This alleviates your system of trying to fight off the infection from a weakened, sub-standard state.
Your Immune System and every system of the body must be strong.
They get this necessary support if your body gets the daily rest that it needs! 3.
The unconscious mind processes the day's events.
This is an important function if you want to have good mental health and be able to handle stress well.
Lack of good quality sleep is an attributing factor to depression and some forms of mental illness.
One finds serious sleep disorders in untreated people.
And let's not forget about the importance of dreaming; it is the mechanism which allows the unconscious mind to play.
Medicine considers this is an important brain function and non-dreamers are cheated of this delightful luxury! 4.
As you rest, the body renews its energy stores for the next day.
We all need to regenerate new energy reserves thus enabling us to tackle each day.
However, people living with compromised health, unresolved traumas, and extreme tension or those living in unsafe environments rarely wake up feeling rested.
Some only nap and never really sleep at all (especially chronically ill people).
People with this problem build larger and larger sleep deficits; they never get caught up.
If a normal sleep pattern ultimately cannot be restored, a person's health will continue to decline.
When sleep can be normalized, this one issue is a valuable aid in total recovery from illness.
Okay.
Let's agree that sleep is important from a normal physical and disease prevention standpoint, but does an altered sleep mechanism impact other types of health issues? What about people who seem to need extraordinary amounts of sleep? Sleep for Healing People who suffer with life-altering illness or who are recovering from trauma instinctively know that they need sleep--sometimes, lots of it.
Their bodies require extraordinary amounts of rest to facilitate the healing process.
If your body is fighting infections, if you have compromised organ systems or if you're fighting chronic pain, this is especially true.
When I was ill, I had many more symptoms than just being sleepy.
Even so, at times the only thing that mattered was that I be allowed to sleep.
My health was complicated by having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Fibromyalgia (FMS), several viruses and autoimmune disease symptoms.
Weeks went by during which I slept sixteen to twenty hours every day; other times I could not sleep an hour.
My body remained so weak and painful that I hobbled from room to room.
It became a critical issue to bolster my body with whatever it needed, whatever I could find (legally, ethically, and morally, of course).
With my entire being under such a severe strain, I needed tools (and instruction-- see ELT below) to rebuild my entire being and enable it to get well!