Sleep is the state of natural rest observed in all mammals, birds, and fish.

Sleep, sleep and sleep. Sleeping is very important part of our life. People spend their one third time in sleeping. My friend was trying to explain the importance of sleep to me. According to him, the number of sleeping hours and the wealth will make a hyperbola when plotted on a cartesian plot.

errrr.....

But I am planning to watch a movie now and then I will go to sleep. May be tomorrow I will think about the old saying - "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

Just to keep this page active.......never mind.. here is the complete story of sleep....

Sleep is one of those funny things about being a human being -- you just have to do it. Have you ever wondered why? And what about the crazy dreams, like the one where a bad person is chasing you and you can't run or yell. Does that make any sense?

Wikipedia says: Sleep is the state of natural rest observed in all mammals, birds, and fish. It is characterized by a reduction in voluntary body movement, decreased reaction to external stimuli, an increased rate of anabolism (the synthesis of cell structures), and a decreased rate of catabolism (the breakdown of cell structures).

Also, on dreaming wikipedia goes like,

Dreaming involves an involuntary conjuring up of images in a sequence in which the sleeper/dreamer is usually more a participant than an observer. Most scientists agree that dreaming is stimulated by the pons and occurs during the REM phase of sleep.

Many functions have been hypothesized for dreaming. Freud postulated that dreams are the symbolic expression of frustrated desires that had been relegated to the subconscious, and used dream interpretation in the form of psychoanalysis he pioneered. Scientists today have generally become more skeptical about details of Freudian interpretation, and place more emphasis on dreaming as a requirement for organization and consolidation of recent memory and experience. Another hypothesis is that dreaming allows an animal to play out scenarios that may help the animal avoid dangers when awake. For example, a rabbit might dream about being cornered by a fox and may play out different scenarios that might increase its chances of survival should it come across a fox in reality.

Hobson and McCarley's activation synthesis theory proposes that dreams are caused by random firings of neurons in the cerebral cortex during the REM period. According to the theory, the forebrain then creates a story in an attempt to reconcile and make sense of the nonsensical sensory information presented to it, hence the odd nature of many dreams. Critics of this theory, however, resent the implicit notion that reason and emotion are necessarily absent from dreams, and point out that not all dreams are entirely random; some individuals and cultures value their dreams and see dreaming as a meaningful, important part of life. Also, this theory has difficulty accounting for the demonstrable phenomenon of recurring dreams.