Every day we maintain our body and mind to stay fresh, alert and healthy by subjecting or submitting ourselves to this activity (of inactivity)! I mean here our Sleeping! We sleep in about one third of our lifetime – to do our best and clever activities, when we are awake. This wonderful sleeping mechanism is essential to all animals including birds, reptiles and fish. Sleep deprivation makes both the body and mind activities dull and makes all susceptible to accidents, and also to illnesses.
This sleeping time is set by the Biological Clock present inside the brain (Hypothalamus). It is maintained by the Circadian Rhythm that is governed by the light and darkness cycles found in the Earth. But the subtle mechanism of this clock is altered by our activities, desires, excitement and drugs! But even after these alterations this clock reminds (warns) us always about sleeping, and succeeds in making us fall asleep in the next possible instant. If we ignore it repeatedly and put this clock in ‘Snooze,’ we will surely land up in problems such as memory loss, irritability, tremors, headache, mental illnesses, Diabetes and Heart diseases.
There are two types of stages in a sleeping time: Non-Rapid Eye Movement and Rapid Eye Movement stages (NREM & REM). These two stages follow one another and are repeated in about five cycles. The NREM sleep lasts for about 90 minutes and the REM for 20 minutes. NREM sleep is the deeper sleep in which all the systems slow down, and bed-wetting and sleep talking also occur! But in REM, there are rapid movements of eyeballs from side to side and dreams that we remember at morning!
Mechanical engines perform well when given maintenance such as dust removing, giving rest and oiling. Similarly, our body and mind are also maintained daily by the sleep by itself: we need not take any effort in it ourselves!
This wonderful sleeping must be desired and undergone by each one of us, and should not be ignored by each one of us for the health of all of us!
