Sleep and dreams

Have you ever wondered how essential sleep is to your existence? From my point of view, it should be placed next to the air and water, as it is one of the elements required for a normal daily life. Even though, there are few individuals who were able to carry on without sleeping for more than one hundred hours, it is well known and proved with scientific methods and experiments that the amount of sleep influences equally our state of health and mind.
The importance of sleeping can be also seen from the number of disorders related with it. These would be insomnia, narcolepsy, bedwetting, sleepwalking and sleep talking (somnambulism), sleep apnea. Some of them are more common than others, though they all have negative aspects to individuals regular functioning.
Along with the ability to sleep comes the experience of dreaming. Even though the purpose of dreaming is still wrapped in mystery, the importance of it was proved without any doubt. People, who were prevented from dreaming (they were always awakened when the REM sleep was about to begin (which is normally associated with persons dreams)) tend to be less capable to remember what they have learned previously, to concentrate, to obtain new information. Figures show that people normally have approximately 600 hours of dreaming a year, more than 1400 dreams – an amount which ought to have influence on us though we realise it or not. It is a well-known thought, that the more usual and ordinary thing is, the less of interest it obtains. Nevertheless, sleep and dreams do deserve our attention and concern as it is an important side of our consciousness and requires our appropriate care, thus improving our health in the hole.