Sleep

ALONG the field as we came by
A year ago, my love and I,
The aspen over stile and stone
Was talking to itself alone.
‘Oh who are these that kiss and pass?
A country lover and his lass;
Two lovers looking to be wed;
And time shall put them both to bed,
But she shall lie with earth above,
And he beside another love.’

And sure enough beneath the tree
There walks another love with me,
And overhead the aspen heaves
Its rainy-sounding silver leaves;
And I spell nothing in their stir,
But now perhaps they speak to her,
And plain for her to understand
They talk about a time at hand
When I shall sleep with clover clad,
And she beside another lad.

A.E.Housman

and she only sleeps when it's raining ...

The important thing about sleep is that I dream. To sleep, perchance to dream. The clearest non-nightmare dream image I have right now, is being chased by guerilla warriors through a mountain spring surrounded with pure white snow, wearing a long white wedding dress. The most important part of the image, is that the water is completely clear and utterly cold, but I'm not cold. Also that the dress is sleeveless, and I normally hate sleeveless dresses. Why would I choose to be married in a style of dress I don't like?

sleep is to be avoided at all costs, with the exception of when one's tired

To sleep enough is very important. Scientific studies have proven that people that just sleep 6 hours have just 80% of the energy they get when sleeping 8 hours. And just sleeping 4 hours result in 60% energy.

But after all this seems to be a fair compromise.

When I sleep, I travel to strange places in my dreams. I am starting to break out of linear thinking and paying attention to all the signs that are constantly around me. If something attracts my attention for a moment, I focus on it and think about why and what I associate that something with and it follows and it follows and it follows and it flows

When that guy from The Band (Rick Danko?) died recently, one of the obituaries said that he was asked once why he slept all the time on the road.
Danko-- »Don't you know about dreams?«

Are the boundaries of sleep distinct? Are sleep and wakefulness discrete states?

I heard that people who need a lot of sleep (more than eight hours per night) have a lower life expectancy than those who can cope with seven or less hours per night.