How do I tell my child?: Why we need our sleep

read a Cup of warm milk with honey, one more Chapter, five more minutes of radio play: It's pretty, always, if the sleep times would you do so many things rather than lie quietly in bed and close the eyes. Who goes willingly to bed?! But it is important, however, because the parents have been legal.

Johanna Kuroczik

editor in the Department "science" of the Frankfurt General Sunday newspaper.

children half of your life to spend almost Sleeping. A Newborn needs about seventeen hours of sleep per day. Who goes in the first class, lies dormant for the most part still about eleven hours. Even if it seems to us to Wake up, as if nothing had happened in the night – our body is doing amazing work while we snooze peacefully. "Sleep has many different features," says Claus Doerfel, and he should know, because he is a pediatrician and sleep physician at the University clinic in Jena.

What's going on at night, exactly in the body depends on the sleep phase. There are different phases, which are repeated always. If one closes the eyes, begins the sleep phase. The body comes to rest, the legs twitch sometimes, because the muscles relax during sleep. That's why some people snore because the tongue and throat muscles to SAG and constrict the Airways. After a while of light sleep follows, here you can be awakened by faint sounds. In the subsequent deep sleep is different, as it takes ordinary noise. You're breathing quiet and regular, the heart beats slower, body temperature drops.

In deep sleep, the body regenerates itself, that is to say: He puts everything in order so that we are prepared for the next day. For hormones, among other things, which can be thought of as tiny Messengers that flit through the body and distribute tasks. Important for all children: In the first hours of Sleep growth hormones are especially active, you grow in your sleep. The night's sleep also affects the immune system. If you don't sleep enough, can't do the immune cells in search of pathogens in the body after disease their job properly.

the deep sleep is a fascinating part of sleep: the so-called REM-Phase. This stands for Rapid Eye Movement, translated as "rapid eye movement", and that is because the eyes twitching under the closed eyelids during this phase of sleep wild back-and-forth. While the body relaxes, turns the brain: Important events of the day are processed. Areas of the brain that are responsible for, are in full swing. One learns, so to speak, in sleep: scientists have shown that test subjects were able to better recall words when they slept in the night after Learning is sufficient. The REM stage is also the part of the night, in the dreams.

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After that it starts again from the beginning, therefore, follows on from light sleep to the deep sleep, then lighter sleep, and then REM comes: a cycle lasts approximately one and a half to two hours. The longer we sleep, the shorter it is, however, sleeping the deep sleep and the longer the REM.