It's no secret that we all need sleep for our tissues to heal, we've known about that for a while. Australian scientists and pain specialists Lorimer and Moseley suggest that sleeplessness may contribute to ill health and also to increased sensitivity of tissues. They also say that if we don't get enough sleep the body doesn't get a good enough chance to repair itself. There is a fascinating book by Matthew Walker, entitled Why We Sleep, that if you're interested in the topic is well worth a read. Matthew is a professor of psychology and neuroscience who has been researching what the role of sleep in health and disease is at the University of California for many years. Evidence now suggests that sleep deprivation is linked to heart disease and is even pointing to an increase risk of diabetes and Alzheimer's. We have 4 stages to our sleep that occur each night. One stage is REM, or Rapid Eye Movement sleep. This stage of sleep is a deep sleep where we experience dreaming and is said to ...