Why do people need sleep? Sleep, like food and water, is very important to our mental health and physical health. If you don't sleep, you will be like a drunk, top-heavy, slow-witted, uncoordinated in hand and eye, difficult in decision-making, wrong in judgment, and even confused in speech. Sleep takes up 1/3 of our life, and plays an important role in the improvement of spirit, emotion, physical health, immunity and the growth and repair of human cells. During sleep, brain cells are completely rested, and brain function is completely maintained and restored. When people want to sleep, it is impossible to stay awake for a long time on their own. If we sleep well, wake up refreshed in the morning, have a fresh mind, improve our ability to process information during the day, think quickly, enhance our ability to judge and predict, and work with ease, which is the foundation of a person's career success and the performance of a high-quality life. Children need sleep for their growth and development. At the deepest sleep, the brain secretes the most growth hormone, which promotes children's bone growth and physical development. The so-called "one inch bigger" means that children who have not slept well for a long time are not tall. Growth hormone plays an important role in the physical recovery of adults, and can also promote the circulation of skin capillaries, accelerate the metabolism of facial skin cells, keep the skin rosy and shiny, and play a role in skin care. In the deepest sleep, when the release of immune substances in the body increases, it can improve immunity and enhance the body's ability to prevent, resist and recover from diseases. People who don't sleep well are prone to minor illnesses and colds. Children's intellectual development also needs sleep. Dreaming sleep is an important sleep stage to promote the nervous system and intellectual development of infants. Dementia children have less dream sleep time than normal children of the same age, and Alzheimer's patients have significantly less dream sleep. Many things in life are taken for granted, regardless of why. Like eating, like sleeping. We eat when we are hungry and sleep when we are sleepy. However, maybe we should spend some time paying attention to these daily activities. Perhaps, it is these ordinary things that can no longer be ordinary that inadvertently cause problems. Insomnia is like this. It is estimated that about13 adults in the world suffer from insomnia. March 2 1 This year is World Sleep Day, which is an important activity in the Global Sleep and Health Program (WWPSH) sponsored by the International Foundation for Mental Health and Neuroscience (IFMHN). China joined this international activity for the first time. On the eve of World Sleep Day, the reporter interviewed Professor Li Shunwei from the Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Sleep-the necessary process of life To talk about insomnia, we must first understand sleep. Sleep is a physiological state that can be easily recovered by stimulation, and it is needed periodically. At this time, consciousness is relatively lost and there is no voluntary muscle activity. This is an active rather than passive phenomenon. During sleep, the brain actively reorganizes and consumes as much glucose and oxygen as it does when awake. Sleep has a circadian rhythm, which is consistent with everyone's life cycle, changes according to different time, depends on the body's biological clock, and adapts to environmental changes according to the biological clock. Human growth hormone secretion is directly related to sleep. If sleep is delayed than normal, the peak of growth hormone secretion is also delayed, which is always consistent with sleep. Other biological variables also have circadian rhythms. During deep sleep, the body temperature will drop. Therefore, the body temperature during sleep is lower than that during waking. Sleep is an indispensable process of life and an indispensable part of health. People's brains need sleep, and they can't get any rest when they are awake. If people can't sleep, their behavior will change. The recovery, reconstruction and regeneration of neurons and related tissues need the rest of the body, and only the sleep state can provide this rest. There is also evidence that what you learn during the day can be "consolidated" by sleeping at night, and you can recall it the next morning. It is not known whether this is related to sleep, or simply because it does not interfere with new memories. It takes an average of one-third of the time. I'm afraid nothing in a person's life can be compared with sleep. Many people want to take time out of sleep to do other things, but we must also find that if we don't get enough sleep the day before, we need more sleep the next day. If you sleep too little, you will owe a "sleep debt". It's like a bank overdraft. Finally, the body will ask you to pay off these debts. We can't seem to get used to sleeping less than we need. However, so far, scientists can't explain why people need sleep and how the brain works in principle. It is recommended that friends go to bed at 10 o'clock in the evening, get up at 6: 00 to 7: 00 in the morning, and keep at least eight hours' sleep before midnight. According to our experience, the best time for human hematopoiesis is from 6 pm to midnight 1 40 pm, and the human body must reach a state of deep sleep. It has been the standard living habit of human beings since ancient times to work at sunrise and rest at sunset. For tens of thousands of years, because there is no electricity, it is almost impossible to move at night. In modern times, due to the invention of electric light and the appearance of television, modern people's nightlife is getting richer and richer, and bedtime is getting later and later. In ancient times, "midnight" was used to describe late at night. Except for a few bad guys who have committed crimes, most people are seldom active at this time. But most people in modern times go to bed at midnight. In the study of meridians, we found that there are many ferroferric oxide molecules in human meridians, which are the main magnetic materials on our computer disks. It is speculated that the magnetic field has a great influence on human body. The biggest magnetic field in our living space is the sun, and the real physiological clock of human body is probably based on the solar magnetic field. Before modern science has figured out these problems, the consequences will naturally be very serious if we change our schedule rudely and arbitrarily.