In today’s increasingly frantic and non-stop world, it can often seem strange and somewhat contradictory that most people spend up to one third of their life asleep. Despite the fact that the pace of modern life can make a good eight hours of sleep seem like a decadent luxury instead of the basic necessity that it really is, the truth is that we all need to get enough sleep.
However, despite the fact that through the wonders of modern science, we do understand many of the physical, physiological and psychological effects of sleep on the average human being, the truth is that we really do not fully understand exactly why we need the amount of sleep that we need.
Of course, there are exceptions to this generalization. For example, we pretty much understand why a newborn baby needs an average of 16 hours of sleep a day, and why the amount of sleep that we need in every 24-hour period tends to decrease as we get older. Nevertheless, whilst thousands of hours of research conducted by some of the most pre-eminent medical experts (and advanced computers) on the planet have expanded medical science and understanding by leaps and bounds over the past couple of decades, the exact reason why we need to sleep remains something of a mystery.
At one time in history, for example, it was believed that sleep was the brains opportunity to close down completely. Nowadays, of course, we know that this is completely untrue. We also know that during sleep, both the brain and the physical body have a chance to recuperate, rebuild and regain strength in order to face the rigors of the coming day.
The bottom line is, however, that there are still many mysteries about sleep and why we actually need to have a sufficient amount of it every night.
For instance, most people can quote examples of perfectly healthy friends or family members who apparently need 10 hours sleep a night. At the same time, they also know other equally healthy people who are around the same age, of similar physique and physical conditioning with a similar job (i.e. one that requires a comparable amount of physical or mental effort) who only seem to need half that amount of sleep every night.
The truth is, there are many things about sleep that we understand extremely well, but there are still other aspects of our night-time snooze that are not so clear.
Therefore, perhaps the best answer to the question ‘why do we sleep?’ should be something along the lines of ‘because we need to’, because if nothing else is obvious, the adverse effects of a continued lack of sleep can quickly become all too apparent.
Section summary
• Although it is obvious that everybody needs to get ‘enough’ sleep to remain healthy and well, our understanding of exactly why we need sleep is still lacking in some respects.
• The bottom line, however, is that an adequate amount of sleep is absolutely essential for everyone, and, as we will see later, snoring is one of the main reasons why people do not get enough rest.