Sleep - a magical potion

I have a miracle drug. This drug does not have to be ingested, has no side effects, increases mood, pumps up one's immune system, makes one more alert and more productive, decreases auto accidents, strengthens personal relationships, makes one more attractive and feels great. What is this magical potion - sleep.

I love to sleep but as most Americans I sleep fewer hours than my body requires. Most humans allowed to sleep uninterrupted for two weeks will eventually fall into an 8.7-hour a night natural sleep pattern. We need this sleep to reach our full potential. Few people allow their bodies to rest fully thanks to Thomas Edison - the creator of the light bulb. Instead of waking with the sun and falling asleep as our world darkens we tend to rise when the alarm sounds and fall asleep as Letterman offers his monologue, only to rise again as the alarm chimes six hours later.

Instead of obeying our natural biological rhythm of sleep, we fight the desire to rest in search of all this world has to offer. "Party harder, live life to its fullest, I'll sleep when I'm old and living the nightlife," are adages that allow us to reason and justify unhealthy behavior. As an infamous bumper sticker poet pines, "Live life to it's fullest! There is plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead." This analogy might see the participant living out dead sooner than life.

Sleep is the one gift we offer ourselves that can alleviate and separate ourselves from the stress of daily life. Sleep allows one to think clearly, make good choices and perform at the top of one's ability. Sleep makes us a better person.

We live our life in rhythm - life is melodic. Our heart beats in rhyme; seasons pass in balance and the backbeat of rock and roll forces a tap of the toe and sway of hips. Daily humans cycle every few hours from being tired to wide-awake and women cycle monthly as their bodies prepare to conceive a child. Sleep follows this same cycle unless one is sleep deprived. We need our eight hours of sleep.

People pass through four stages of sleep that begin with hallucinations and slowly mold to vivid dreams. These stages begin with falling asleep. As we fall asleep we vividly see the world as it is or how we wish it to be. We incorporate sounds and sensations felt in the world around us. If watching a television crime show while falling asleep we become a member of the cast and begin to solve the crime in our slumber; then we suddenly fall - our body relaxes and we spasmodically catch our self as we feel the sense of falling. This feeling is due to our body, muscles and nerves relaxing faster than our mind. We fall back to sleep - we enter stage one sleep.

After 20 minutes, stage two sleep envelopes our body. We start talking nonsensically in our sleep and little girls at slumber parties laugh while their sleeping friend mumbles of boys, dogs, cartoons and cows. This is due to sleep spindles, which are electrical bursts of brain activity that bring to our conversation random information energized from electrical brain activity.

Next comes stage three deep sleep, then stage four deeper sleep involving Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and deep, meaningful dreams. During stage four sleep children tend to wet the bed and begin walking in their sleep. It is difficult to waken a person in stage four sleep especially during the first three hours of sleep.

So, each night we begin these cycles of sleep for approximately one and a half hours for the first two cycles (three hours) then begin to quickly shorten our sleep cycles as morning arrives. People who believe they do not dream tend to remember their dream if woken up after the first one and a half hour of sleep. As night turns to morning, dreams become less important and carry less meaning.

I am an evil college instructor! I assign my college students (and suggest you follow these directions) to set their alarm clock to two hours after they go to bed, place a note pad and pencil on their nightstand and write everything they remember when the alarm chimes. Students who successfully accomplish this task find reward knowing their dreams have meaning.

Everyone dreams. People who believe they do not dream report visual representation in their sleep when awoken two hours after falling asleep. There are many theories of why one sleeps but I find the most understandable explanation being to resolve daily misunderstanding.

Why do we dream? Psychologists believe the reasons for dreaming includes doing things in our dreams we wish we could do in daily life, filing away memories of the day's trials and tribulations, exercising our neural pathways during sleep to ensure our neurons are ready to fire the following day, making sense of the natural energy our brain gives off as we sleep and to build neural brain maturity.

I believe, and many psychologists accept, that we dream to solve the previous day's experiences. When a friend says, "Why don't you sleep on it and see how you feel in the morning," what they are saying is, "Dream on it, view all options available in your dreams, try all options in your dream and see if they work then make a decision."

Everyone I've counseled and friends I've helped, find success in giving major decisions a day before declaring a resolution. We resolve conflict in our dreams. Living the decision in a make-believe dream world helps us try the decision, view all options and discover the best resolution for our difficulty - just sleep on it.

So, if sleeping is so important, what stops one from sleeping and dreaming? Drugs and alcohol stop the dreaming process. Sleeping pills, one or two nightcaps, most psychotropic medications, pain, stress, video games, marijuana, night noise (leaving the television on after falling asleep, or living in a loud neighborhood) depression and anxiety stop dreaming and our ability to enter the bliss of stage four sleep.

In 1942 the average American slept 7.6 hours a night. In 2001 the average night slept of an American is 6.7 hours. Our society is losing sleep and losing energy. In our search to become a more productive nation we are losing productivity and personal health. "Rest. That's all I need is rest." Said Eastern Airlines Captain James Reeves to the control tower on a September 1974 morning - 30 minutes before crashing his airliner at low altitude, killing the crew and all 69 passengers.

Rest, that's all I need is rest; to allow me to live, I say while living a rewarding, mentally challenging meaningful life!

Bill Rutherford is a psychotherapist, public speaker, elementary school counselor, adjunct college psychology instructor and executive chef, and owner of Rutherford Education Group. Please e-mail him at bprutherford@hotmail.com and check out www.foodforthoughtcda.com.