Dreaming, snoring, tossing and turning -- there are lots of things we do while we're sleeping, but what's actually going on while you're in the land of nod?
Research has come a long way in helping us understand that sleep is more than just a required period of inactivity for our bodies and brains. "Only in the last five to 10 years has research shown that sleep is biologically programmed into virtually every single cell of your body," Michael J. Twery, Ph.D., director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research (NCSDR) at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
Sleep not only restores the body after a long day, it also seems to play a role in learning and memory, growth and development and immunity, yet researchers still don't know exactly why or how sleep works its many wonders.
