Sleeping and Dreaming

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Each night without fail our eyes grow heavy and our minds tired, and dreaming we drag ourselves to bed and normally fall asleep quickly and peacefully off to dream land we go.

Why is this though? Why do we sleep every night? Why do we awake with dream fresh in our heads? How important is this most basic human routine to our survival? What happens when it is disturbed?

Sleeping is extremely important for all mammals, but humans especially. Without sleep we are unable to function properly and at our fullest abilities. When we sleep we grow, and it is an opportunity for us to dream which has many benefits. Sleep is also a way for us to relieve ourselves of stress.

Sleeping is a very unique process, performed only by creature with brains that have evolved considerably. Sleeping is a process of the brain performed by the brain for the brain (1). Which basically means that everything that happens during sleep is a result of the brain, and the reason it happens is because the brain needs it to. Sleep is so unique that it is impossible to mentally feign sleep (1). Even though we look as though we have entirely shut down when we sleep, we have not. The human brain is extremely active during all stages of sleep. This has been demonstrated countless times by monitoring the electrical activity of a sleeping person.

Little was known about sleep until the nineteenth century, although many great scholars and philosophers from various countries had wondered about sleep and even tried to study sleep throughout the ages, they were unsuccessful because they simply lacked the proper technology to understand the major role that the brain plays in sleep. Some had even speculated that the brain was a part of sleep but they just had no way to res...

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...unt of time that we spend in REM sleep, and NREM will increase after physical exertion (2). REM sleep it is extremely important because it is during REM sleep that most dreams occur and it is also when the dreams are more vivid compared to the few dreams that occur in NREM sleep (2). During REM sleep the brain is so active that it looks as though a person is awake, especially the area that correspond to imagery and emotion.

During REM the body becomes very still, this is referred to as REM-sleep paralysis and is most like to prevent us from physically acting out our dreams, a potentially dangerous activity. When this fails to happen people become violent and thrash around or jump out of bed, and can attack people they are sleeping with, this is a condition called REM behavior disorder. On the opposite end of REM behavior disorder is an equally scary experience.

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