Slapen: een lust of een last

Abstract

Humans cannot live without sleep, but despite this important fact it is still not exactly known what the function of sleep precisely is. Probably, sleep plays a role in bodily recovery. Sleep is for restoration of the body, by the functioning of the anabolic growth hormone which is released during deep sleep. Currently, this is the most accepted theory of sleep. Humans sleep six to eight hours, implying that they sleep about one-third of total life. Sleep is as necessary as eating and drinking and if sleep is too short or too disordered, humans feel less fit during the day and are less energetic. The structure of sleep changes dramatically in ageing, in such a way that sleep is sometimes more a bitter than a sweet of life. Sleep at older age is discussed and sleep therapies are mentioned in this book chapter.