Sleep is almost as necessary to life as food.
Shakespeare calls it, `nature’s sweet restorer.’ We go to bed at night, tired and worried; but we wake up in the morning vigorous and refreshed, feeling like new men. Nothing so quickly wears out the energy of the body as want of sleep. Those who suffer from insomnia, or chronic sleeplessness, know this only too well. One of the most terrible tortures practiced in China is keeping a man without sleep for several days. The poor wretch succumbs and dies after three days of such treatment.
It is not certainly known what exactly sleep is and what is its cause. But one theory is that the physical activities of the waking hours gradually produce poisonous waste matter in the tissues of the body, which affect the rain and eventually in duce unconsciousness. During sleep this excess of poisonous matter is got rid of, and when the tissues are clear of it, consciousness returns, and we wake up, refreshed and invigorated for the life of another day. Anyway, there is no doubt that sleep is not merely rest. Half-an-hour’s sound sleep will do more to restore energy than hours of mere waking rest. It is not only the muscles, but the brain and nervous system, that require rest; and this can be obtained only in sleep.
In sleep we are unconscious of our surroundings. Our senses are inert. We see, smell, taste, feel nothing, and hear nothing unless the noise is loud enough to wake us. And yet the unconsciousness cannot be complete, for we dream. Dreams are mental images; and they prove that part of the brain is working during sleep.
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