If you are someone who just longs for the sweet experience of deep slumber, then sleep needs no explanation.  Sleep may be defined as that stage in which you are supposed to experience total relaxation of the body and mind.  During sleep, you are less conscious and less active but your brain and your body is still at work.

Proper sleep is important if you want to maintain your normal routine during the day.   If you get little sleep, you’ll be more irritable, less focused and more fatigued the next day.  Getting less sleep for one night can be an irritant to most people; getting too little sleep for weeks can be extremely detrimental to your health.

While lack of sleep can cause minor disturbances and changes in a person’s behavior and working patterns, there can be serious consequences.  We’ve all heard of sleep deprived drivers causing deadly accidents on the highway.

If you don’t sleep for several days you could experience a mental breakdown and be unable to function normally.  Every so often you’ll hear about someone (like a celebrity) doing something odd on the news and they’ll report that they haven’t slept for a while.  Think of Margo Kidder or most recently, Brittany Spears behavior.

Our need for sleep is a very real physical requirement.  Our bodies use this time to recuperate and repair while our consciousness is off in dreamland.  Think of all the times you were sick, broke a bone or just had surgery – weren’t you really tired and didn’t you need a lot more sleep than you normally do?  That’s because your body was using a lot of energy to repair the problem and heal you.

Our brains need the downtime as well.  We assimilate and process the information we receive during our day so it makes sense to us.  Later, we’ll be able to recall this as needed, if we obtain the proper amount of sleep.

Our sleep is important to us so we have energy to function normally during the day.  To be able to do what we expect to do without having to consciously think about it.  Sleep is important to maintain our bodies and minds in the best physical health possible.  And our sleep is needed to feel emotionally calm and collected, able to face our day.