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The Lack of Sleep

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Submitted By fearsb
Words 1099
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Your body uses 2/3 of the energy it uses in the day while you're asleep. You know why? Dreaming.

We can't remember more than 9/10 of our dreams, but we spend hours dreaming each night. It serves a number of pursoses, and there is a huge variety of studies detailing each of the theories on the purpose of sleep and dreaming.

Dreaming helps us sort through our days experience. It's a filer that puts things in the right categories and makes our mind organised so we can access the data easily to carry on with our lives. Do you recall how confused and slow you can feel when sleep deprived?

Sleeping is also a way to work through unconscious conflicts, fears and desires. If your unconscious and your instincts are craving something or you have fear or anxiety or some conflict, your dreaming mind can work through it to make you feel a lot better when you wake up. This explains why we can hardly ever remember our dreams, and trying to do so is like trying to cup water in your hands - they're not supposed to be remembered, it could freak you out! It's for your unconscious to deal with.

Some people think that dreaming is used to 'test' the body before waking up, as well. It goes through different areas of the brain and makes sure it is all working and warmed up before we wake. This would explain how we often remember dreaming if we are suddenly woken. No energy drink or food can make up for dreaming, you really do need to get a good amount of sleep to keep your mind ticking.

That said, lots of water and simple carbohydrates can be used to keep you going in an emergency! Numerous factors can contribute to poor sleep, including vitamin and mineral deficiencies. The featured article by LiveScience1 highlights three nutrients tied to three common sleep problems. To this, I would add melatonin, which is both a hormone and an antioxidant: * Magnesium deficiency

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