Sleep - a real blessing in disguise
We have a lot of things in life that we think, are not of much importance, until we sit down and ponder upon them. Sleep is one of such things. Commonly it is not considered to be of much value, rather sometimes recognized as a sign of laziness. As far as I understand it, sleep is actually a great blessing of God in disguise and is much more than we really think of it. I am just trying to write down the benefits we get out of it without putting an extra effort for a sleep.
By definition, sleep is a condition of body and mind that recurs for several hours in each cycle of 24 hours. It includes a reduced consciousness, a temporarily suspended physical activities which mainly involve voluntary muscles. It is quite differentiated from a state of hibernation of coma. These are three altogether different states of body and mind. A new born baby needs about 12-18 hours of sleep. This duration decreases with age. An adult person requires about 7-9 hours of sleep in a cycle of 24 hours.
This is actually a great system of nature to rejuvenate humans and other organisms as well, so that they are able to perform the life activities better. We all have this personal experience that a simple restart to our computer often does wonders when the machine stays powered on for a longer period of time. After the restart, the machine performs better. The state of sleep works almost the same way. We feel relaxed and afresh and are ready to start daily activities of life with a new passion. We can say it is a kind of mysterious part of our lives. God has devised it in a way that we are not left with any option to skip it. If someone tries to skip his sleep for a couple of days, he definitely faces other damages to his physique, in addition to the benefits he gets by using that sleep time for some other activity. Here I am listing down some of the benefits of sleep that we always get but don’t acknowledge. This might be because we don’t put any extra effort for our sleep, we don’t pay anything for it. This is not all, only the ones I think of at the moment.
Dreams
This first and foremost thing that comes to our mind related to sleep are the dreams. We cannot have dreams if we don’t sleep. Dreams are a totally different world of imagination. We see impossible things in our dreams, often our wishes and wants in a materialized form. Thus we are carried away for a while to a different world where anything is possible and anybody can do anything. This gives a sense of amusement, though it is temporary but it is good. In addition to that, a dream sometimes becomes an inspiration for someone. The person sets an aim to actually prove or make what he or she has seen in the dreams. And no dreams are possible without sleep.
Improvement in memory
Our body is inactive during sleep but the mind is not. It hovers around different places from past, present and future. Scientists have experimented that having a good daily sleep helps improve the memory. People are good at remembering things who have a good sleep. With a strong memory the performance in every field automatically improves.
Increased life span
Having a regular and extended sleep keeps the body in a comfortable and relaxing form. This helps to some extent, for the body to live for longer period of time.
Help in digestive system
A regular sleep helps digest our food. The blood circulates well to all parts of the body and the resultant energy reaches all parts. This is good for the body to be well prepared against different diseases including heart disease, diabetes and strokes.
Increases creativity
As the whole body is refreshed after a sleep, the person feels vitalized and creativity in different activities increases. That is the reason we feel more creative and passionate to work new things in the morning.
Helps to focus
Children with adequate daily sleep focus more on their studies and their chances for higher grades increase as compared to those who do not fulfil their sleep. It also helps adults to focus on things they find hard to concentrate on, when tired, particularly during evening time. Decision power increases with a proper daily sleep.
Lowers stress
After the sleep, the person feels relaxed and is able to control the stress that he had been facing before that. As the body is relaxed, it is better able to handle the stress. A sleep deprived person feels worn out because the body has not relaxed to the required extent.
Helps avoid accidents
For drivers, a complete sleep is necessary as they have to drive for long. I have often noticed drivers for a long route to have very strong tea. They believe this helps to some extent to avoid feeling dizzy but this has other physical effects as well. If they don’t focus on completing their sleep, the physical stress increases. Insufficient sleep can be detrimental, particularly to long route drivers.
Were you aware of these benefits of sleep before reading this article?
Helps control body weight
As I mentioned earlier, a good sleep helps circulate the blood to all parts of the body, carrying necessary energy for them. This also discourages piling up fats in the body and the weight remains under control. Body figure becomes more attractive this way.
Lightens up the mood
After the sleep, the body is relaxed and the person is in a very good mood. That is the reason, people are quite happy and active during morning. This process gradually slows down as the day moves forward.
These are some benefits of sleep that I could add up at the moment. I am sure this is not all. There are still other things we are not aware of so far. The point to mention here is that we all need to have a good sleep daily.
