Despite the dangerous involved, every animal sleeps. Over millions of years animals have evolved to do incredible things like swim, run and fly. But no animal goes without sleep.

Its such a vitally important part of our lives, especially considering we spend about a third of our life doing it, we have spent very little time studying it and there is much we don’t understand.

But here is what I do know:

There is a good reason why sleep is the most important part of recovering from any illness. Your immune system is most active during sleep. Sleep can be directly correlated with the strength of your immune system.

Sleep spurts the release of the Human Growth Hormone responsible for physical development and cellular regeneration.

One of my worst habits is staying up late to do work when I could be doing it the following morning. Sleep Stimulates creativity Helps us Deal with lifes emotional stresses and even Improve athletic performance.

Statistically its been found that older people sleep less, I always assumed this was because they needed less sleep, but that turns out not to be the case, Sleep problems are just more common.

So sleep is pretty important, how does one get a good nights sleep?

Although its something I never get to do with my busy lifestyle, napping is fantastic. If you fail to sleep solidly the night before a nap might be exactly what you need to catch up. Its also such a good way to deal with stress just the anticipation of it can lower your blood pressure.

The ideal time to sleep would be shortly after it gets dark and then rising early in the morning on your own with the sun. If you can’t go to bed that early at least shoot for a time in which if you go to sleep you’ll wake up on your own before your alarm clock. Being awaken by a alarm will jolt you out of sleep. That’s bad. Your body does a lot of important maintenance while you sleep and it all gets interrupted and dropped with the sound of a alarm. Let yourself wake up naturally or you are going to feel groggy all morning and feel like you slept less than you did.

How much you need to sleep is something you’ll have to find for yourself. The average is 8.7, but there are plenty of normal people who need 10 hours and some who need only 6.

Your computer will keep you up at night. The screen sends out a high level of blue light which is mentally associated with the sky. I recommend the program f.lux to every die hard computer user. Your screen will be more readable at night and it might just help you fall asleep.  If you want to read more about blue light Click here.

What to sleep on is a tricky subject that there is very little scientific knowledge about. But we have a industry of bed manufactures that tell us we are supposed to sleep on LIGHT FLUFFY CLOUDS that cost thousands of dollars.

Beds like Breakfast  started off as as a novelty the wealthy enjoyed. As the middle class rose to power they took after the wealthy and soft beds became apart of our culture.

I don’t know if you have, but I looked around and I don’t see any other animals sleeping on fluffy clouds. I see them sleeping on firm surfaces.

I spent a good deal of my childhood sleeping on carpet, whether that be in a closet or the side of my mothers Californian King bed. I layed out a sleeping bag and slept fine.

It turns out that there are actually health problems caused by sleeping in those soft beds. On a firm surface you are supported by your bones when you sleep, but on a soft one you sink in and it presses lightly against your muscles and veins. It reduces blood flow and can leave you waking up in the morning with sore muscles.

A month ago I threw out my mattress and started sleeping on a series of wooden planks with a blanket placed over it. Its not as ideal as sleeping on dirt or sand but I wake up energized. I no longer get that weak sluggish feeling in the morning that most people suffer from.

If you’ve been camping you know how great you feel the morning after sleeping on the ground. Did you ever take the time  to stop and ask yourself why?