The Importance Of Rest
Rest is very important to man. Rest is essential to good health. Without rest, fatigue results, and diseases follow. Lack of adequate rest causes sickness.
There is healing power in rest. When we are sick, the first thing we do is lie down and rest. The key to a successful remedy from diseases is the restorative power of rest.
Rest is not exclusive in sleep. You can rest by changing activity from a tedious or monotonous ones. Going out and exercising outside, and taking deep breaths under the shades of trees can give rest to the mind and body. Look at the green foliage of plants and trees around you – they give rest to tired eyes. Look at the trees, the birds, the flowers – they all give rest to a weary mind. Think about God and all the blessings he has given you daily – a genuine sense of rest and relaxation will come over you.
All parts of our body need rest. Even the hardest-working organ, the heart, rests after each beat. Also the lungs, rest after each breath. And the stomach needs thirty to sixty minutes rest after each meal.
Rest must be preceded by exercise or any activity, and rest at night is easier and comfortable when done with empty stomach. We can also rest at the middle of the day. Fifteen minutes nap is equivalent to 45 minutes or more at night. This kind of rest not only keeps you active throughout the remainder of the day,but lengthens your life span as well.
Do not sleeping pills. They drastically alter sleeping cycles, and suppress the very important REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. This is the dream part of sleep. Suppressing REM is very harmful to the body. During this stage of sleep, the heartbeat becomes irregular, and brain waves are similar in the waling state.
Sleep is divided into stages. In the presleep stage, the alpha brain waves are prominent. Stage 1 begins as the pulse slow down, and the muscles relax. After 5 to 10 minutes, stage 2 begins, where the brain waves become larger, and the eyes roll from side to side. Twenty minutes later, stage 3 is entered, and the brain waves becomes slow and larger. Muscles are relaxed, and breathing is slow and even. Then stage 4 or delta sleep enters and generally last for 20 minutes, after which the REM sleep starts. After 10 minutes, the sleeper returns to stage 2, 3, and then delta sleep in a cycle lasting about 90 minutes. Then REM sleep starts again. In a night sleep, there is more delta sleep earlier in the night, and more REM sleep toward the morning.
Sleepers who do not get their REM sleep awaken irritable and tired. They become aggressive, restless, angry, depresses and pathetic.ep, REM sleep, empty stomach