Sleep is a semi-conscious state when the body metabolism slows down.
The moment we close our eyes, our eyeballs starts rolling. The deeper the sleep gets rapid eyeball movement'(REM) occurs and goes on for 90 minutes and recurs every 90 minutes. It is during the night that most of the dream occurs.
People whose sixth sense is very strong often have dreams that come true. Dreams are possible because sleep displaces us from the surroundings we live in. However, the reflex activities of the body like the heartbeat and breathing is normal but the body temperature drops. It's therefore, good to sleep in a room that has a normal temperature, cool but not cold.
As the metabolic activity slows down during sleep it's advisable to take a light dinner which is isn't too late. A light walk after dinner helps in easy digestion and sound sleep. Some of the body activities are still active while we are asleep- like the blood supply to the muscle, The repair and growth of muscles and the restoration of energy that we have lost due to the activities during the day.
As tissues grow during sleep, a baby needs long hours of sleep so that he/she grows well. An adult also needs at least 6-8hours sleep per day in order to stay healthy and active. Lack of sleep may lead to health problems like indigestion, loss of memory and muscular weakness. During sleep, the muscles are relaxed in order to gain back their flexibility and recover from the daytime fatigue.
Proper sleep also helps increase the hormone level for alertness(cortisol), hunger(ghrelin) and fullness(leptin) that dip during the day. Lack of sleep leads to the imbalance of these hormones and as a result a person becomes inattentive and takes irregular food intake that is the cause of weight gain or loss.
Sleep, therefore, is a vital part of our daily life.
