Interesting facts about sleep
We spend around a third of our lives sleeping. Sleep is common to mammals, birds and reptiles. Getting enough sleep is an important part of being healthy. It is as important as food for keeping us alive. We save around 100 calories per night by sleeping.
Scientists are not sure exactly why people and other animals sleep. Some of them think that sleep is a way for animals to save energy. Other scientists think that sleep allows the body and mind to rest and recover from the day’s activities.
Sleep helps with consolidation of memory. The brain is bombarded with more information during the day than it is possible to remember, so sleep is used to sort through this information and selectively practice parts that need to be stored.
A lack of sleep increase risk of heart disease.
There are over 100 different disorders that can get in the way of a good night’s sleep. Difficulty falling asleep is known as insomnia, and is one of the most familiar sleep disorders. Difficulty staying awake, or hypersomnia, is less common. Treatment for different sleep disorders varies depending on the particular problem, and can be as simple as making the bedroom environment more conducive to restful sleep.
Narcolepsy is a chronic condition that causes people to suddenly fall asleep during the daytime.
Understanding your biological clock is the key to a healthy night’s sleep. Another important factor in a good night’s sleep is winding down before bed.
Interesting facts
– The little brown bat is the sleepiest animal on the planet, spending a massive 20 hours every day snoozing. The koala is a close rival, sleeping for over 14 hours every day.
– Beethoven composed the play in a dream.
– Voltaire saw a poem in his dream. It was the first version of Henriade.
– Lafontaine wrote fable Two Doves in a dream.
– Mendeleev had a dream in which he saw a table, where chemical elements were arranged in order of increasing atomic number.
– Chemist August Kekule saw benzene formula, on which he worked for a long time.