Our bodies at rest:

What happens when we sleep.

A lot of changes occur when we sleep.

Brain waves alter dramatically, metabolism slows, the intake of oxygen is decreased, damaged cells are repaired and a whole host of other amazing things happen while we sleep
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When we sleep, assuming we are not vampires, we lie down on a relatively flat surface.

This changes the way blood circulates through the body.

When your upright all day, your opposing the force of gravity and your blood is circulating differently as well.

When your in bed, the whole dynamics of circulation change.

When we sleep a lot goes on automatically with out our awareness.

Your whole bodies chemistry is changed in the span of eight hours.

It's like traveling into a whole new world, the world of sleep.

Assuming one reaches a certain depth of sleep, dreaming will occur.

Dreams are those funny juxtapositions of daily experience mixed with past memories and ideas coming together to form a wild and weird drama-scene.

"In REM, the brain is active and the body inactive, and this is when most dreaming occurs." (Wikipedia)

There are more stages to sleep activity in line with the types of activity that occurs in the brain.

"In NREM sleep, the body is active and the brain is inactive, and there is relatively little dreaming." (wikipedia)

Our bodies and brains go through stages of activity and inactivity in a process of restoration while we sleep.

I've found that when I have difficulty getting to sleep, I focus on slowing down my breathing to prompt the natural process of sinking into sleep. It works for me!

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