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| Let me try and translate. Sleep and rest allow the body to replenish depleted energy reserves and allow us to maintain normal physical and mental functioning. Adequate sleep is essential for good physical and mental health because it is necessary for the body's restorative processes. These processes occur in harmony with the body's sleep cycles dictated by the body's natural rhythms. These cycles change into slightly more than 24 hours in length and are reset each day by light and other time cues. Their rhythms dictate our need for periodic rest so that sleep is as important to our biological well-being as food, water, warmth and shelter. |
| Researchers have discovered that normal, restful sleep in human beings consists of four patterns of brain activity called stages. Stages 1 and 2 are considered to be "light" stages of sleep and they typically predominate in the early part of the cycle. Stages 3 and 4 are deeper, more restful periods and they tend to dominate in the latter half of sleep. All four stages come and go many times during the night. Transient awakening usually occurs during stage 1 sleep. Most dreaming occurs during stage 4, which is also known as REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. |
| If the normal pattern of alternating stages is disturbed, sleep may not be fully restorative. In other words, it not only matters how many hours of sleep you get, but the quality of those hours and the sequence of sleep stages in your brain play a role as well. |
| While sleeping approximately eight hours per night is vital to people's physical and mental health, dreaming is necessary for people's psychological health. Most theories of dream function state that |
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