One-third of our life is devoted to sleep. The need for sleep overpowers all other physical needs. It appears that sleep benefits the mind more than the body. Without sleep people can become disoriented or psychotic. Sleep may look like a passive activity.
Sleep is a dynmaic bodily function.
During sleep, blood pressures, heart rate and other body functions such as muscle activity and brain waves rise and fall in a specific individual pattern. Sleep patterns shift from periods of very rapid eye movement and rapidly changing brain waves that alternated with periods of deep, quiet, sleep marked by large, slow brain waves. It was discovered that the body is paralyzed during REM sleep. When a person is awaken during REM sleep almost everyone can remember their dreams. When a person is not deliberately awaken they may not recall their dreams the next morning.