Cradled in cushy mattresses, we dream, rest and refresh ourselves to face another day. Our sleep patterns are largely out of our control. All living organisms appear to have rhythmic patterns of rest and activity called circadian rhythms, says Thomas Hurwitz, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota and member of University of Minnesota Physicians. They are generated internally and develop during infancy in increasing synchrony with social and environmental cues. Scientists have discovered that the hypothalamus the portion of your brain that controls functions such as body temperature, appetite and sleep includes a structure that serves as an internal clock.
Experts say that sleep is a necessary part of mental and bodily function.
While the fact that it forces your body to rest is obvious, sleep also provides your brain with resting periods, allowing you to sort and integrate the data accumulated during the day, Hurwitz says. If you don t give your brain the proper amount of sleep, it will make efforts to make it up all on its own, resulting in loss of concentration, nervous tension or mini-sleeps when you nod off with no control. Significant sleep deprivation can precede or be a prominent symptom of an underlying mood disorder, especially for people with bipolar mood disorder characterized by episodes of mania and depression, says Hurwitz. Insomnia may also be a risk factor predicting later development of major depression. Studies by the National Sleep Foundation show that Americans get too little sleep.