Why do we Sleep? What happens when we sleep?

We all have a different taste when it comes to food, clothes, accessories and so much more. But when it comes to sleep, there isn’t a choice that we have. Its not a want but a need. A necessity. Ever wondered why? Why is it that we all love to sleep? Why is it that the snooze button grabs so much importance every morning? What is that happens to us during sleep that we are so addicted to it?

Lets try to analyze what exactly happens to us when we fall asleep. All experiences that we have throughout a day are through the five senses of our body. These five senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin) govern all our activities and experiences related to those activities.

An odour is just a savour through the nose. Now whether its our desired fragrance or an unwanted smell is something that we decide. We are the ones to label a smell as good or bad and so a good smell and a bad smell can be different for different people. But the sense of smelling is same for all. Throughout the day we experience this creation just through these senses. But while asleep, we transcend them. Its only during sleep in a day, that we loosen our hold not just from these senses, but the entire body.

How do we fall Asleep?

When we are drained off after a hectic day and lie on our beds, the first step towards falling asleep is that we start leaving the control of our five senses. Now here there can be a dilemma about the fact that, are we controlling our senses or they are controlling us? Lets simplify this. While you are reading this, you are also breathing simultaneously. A sound of an extremely mild gust is rushing through your ears every time you exhale. Its the sound of your own breath. You didn’t pay attention to it all this while. That does not mean it wasn’t prevailing. The sound was there even before you heard it. You heard it now, only because you chose to. You chose to shift your consciousness to your breath, and so you heard it. So the control of your senses lies with you. Your senses don’t control you. They cant.

So what primarily happens to as we fall asleep is that we slowly start lifting our attention from our senses and the data coming through those senses. After this, the next barrier that we got to overcome are our very own thoughts. There is so much going on in our minds before sleeping. We plan out the activities that are to be done the very next day, or keep thinking about the stuff that is already history. Again its not the thoughts holding onto us. We hold them.

Its after we let go off the input from everything, starting from senses, thoughts, feelings and emotions, that we slowly fall asleep. As this process of letting go intensifies, we enter deep sleep. This is when we have transcended our bodies completely. For example, you have an injury in your leg and you fall asleep. You will be completely unaware of the sensations of any physical pain enduring in your body while you are asleep. That’s how we surpass the bodily limitations during sleep. But as soon as you wake up and re-establish the connection with your body, you might start feeling the pain again. Its only during deep sleep, that our body replenishes the exhausted energy and starts healing itself. This makes us understand, that we are not this body. This body is just an instrument with which we experience this creation.. Read more