What is sleep? Sleep as part of our daily life,
This chapter describes the basic principles of sleep and wake regulation, the effects of sleep deprivation due to a mismatch between sleep and the biological clock, and what you can do about it.
Every evening, a large behavioral change occurs in almost all people. In a wave that moves over the globe, synchronous with the transition to the night, people seek for safe warm spot, undress, lay down horizontally, and go to sleep. The next morning the opposite movement takes place; people wake up, get up, get dressed and start an active day. The inactive phase – the sleep – takes on average about a third of our lives. Expressed in years, this means that someone of 45 years of age has slept for about 15 years. It is thus a very essential and large part of our lives and it is not surprising that sleep, and therefore any sleep problems, have a major impact on that other 2/3 part of life; on how we function during the active phase and on our health in general.
Slapen als onderdeel van een gezonde leefstijl. In: “Gestoorde slaap: een onschuldig probleem?” Lancel M., Koenraadt F. en ‘t Lam K. (eds). Wolf Legal Publishers. pp 13-28. (2016). http://www.wolfpublishers.com/book.php?id=1288