Every now and then several articles pop up in the blogosphere about how to reduce sleeping to a minimum. At first glance this makes sense, since reducing sleeping time will leave you with more time. But not much is said about the benefits of sleeping and why you should allow yourself to sleep the recommended number of hours, which is somewhere between 7-8 hours per night.

Whilst a lot of people look at sleeping as a complete waste of time, scientists deny that. They remind us that sleeping is one of the most important parts of the day for your body and brain. While you are resting in your bed, unconscious, you experience three different cycles, all of which have different purposes.

Light sleep is the first phase that you experience as soon as you fall asleep. After approximately 30 minutes of light sleeping, you enter the deep sleeping phase. During the deep sleeping phase, your body will get repaired. It is in this phase that your muscles relax and get healed from injuries. Once the deep sleeping phase ends, the dreaming phase called REM starts. REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement. This is the most intense phase where your brain gets repaired. Your brain will process information that you have acquired during the day. It will then prune off useless information and classify new information in context with the other information already stored in your brain from past experiences. This process is extremely important for turning raw data into information and knowledge.

So although while sleeping you are not aware of what is going on, just like right now while reading this you are not aware of your heartbeat, it does not mean that your body is also on standby. While you are sleeping your body performs essential functions that keep you healthy and ready to live another busy day.

So make sure you allocate proper time for your body to perform its housekeeping chores. The next day you will wake up refreshed and energetic, and will surely make up for the time spent sleeping.