We all do it, some more than others. Newborn babies spend about 15 hours or more asleep and so do the octagenarians I see in the retirement home.
But whilst humans tend to sleep for about 8 hours a day on average, other creatures are quite different. Bats for instance sleep for around 20 hours a day whilst giraffes only need 2 hours sleep in every 24.
I suspect that you think you know why we do it but you are wrong. Nobody knows. It is still one of the behaviours which baffle science.
Of course there are theories. One is that we need to rest after our hectic day. Another is that we need to heal. Some believe that it is a learning period when we set to work re-organising our brains by filing away some stuff and discarding anything no longer needed. Finally, it may be that we sleep in order to dream.
The dream theory works for me. I think that sleep gives us a chance to try out things which we cannot do when awake. Sometimes we dream we are flying for instance. Other times, we might dream that we are running a bookshop or running in the Olympics.
Of course there are also the nightmares when we just seem to want to scare ourselves until we scream with fright.
Goodnight - sweet dreams.
I heard that people who have a high IQ tend to dream more and talk while sleeping. Hmm, not sure if its true but will consider it as a theory.
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