Studies have shown that folks can live longer without food than they can without sleep. Shakespeare commented on the restorative nature of sleep calling it "nature's soft nurse". As well as humans, all mammals, reptiles, and birds also need to sleep but why do we need to sleep. Even though the exact reasons why sleep is important remain a mystery, we do know that during sleep many of the body's major organ and regulatory systems continue to work actively. Some parts of the brain actually increase their activity dramatically, and the body produces more of certain hormones.

Melotonin is naturally produced within the body by the pineal gland, which is a small pea sized gland in the center of the brain. At night, melatonin is produced to help our bodies regulate our sleep and wake cycles. As we get older, the amount of melatonin produced by our body reduces which has led scientists to believe that this may be the reason why younger people have less of a problem sleeping than older people do.