At first glance the question “Why do we have to sleep?” seems to have an easy answer, and that is: in order to rest. But in a time, in which people are subject to increasingly strong impulses from the outside and are clocked more and more quickly, the creation of true times of rest becomes a challenge.
Not only Esogetic medicine is considering sleep to be the most important regenerator of our life. It is an equally pivotal necessity as food and drink. Sleep regulates the regeneration of body and brain, the degradation of metabolic toxins and the organizing of emotional conflicts.

Esogetic medicine has a special viewpoint, when distinguishing between natural sleep and toxic sleep. The natural sleep is based on normal fatigue, the toxic sleep arises from exhaustion. Natural sleep bestows vigor and is characterized by beautiful, joyful dreams, whereas the “toxic sleep” is also described as a dull, lethargic sleep. Nightmares and dreams full of anxiety are afflicting the person. From such a night a person wakes up battered, tired and depressed.

We are differentiating between the amount of sleep and the sleep rhythm. Whereas the individuality of a person plays a role in the amount of sleep, the rhythm seems to be a clear natural default setting. Especially the loss of rhythm allows the development of many diseases, yet this fact has not been known for too long. There are blood pressure elevations, cholesterol, sugar or uric acid derailments, or increases in specific lab parameters.
When the derailed rhythm gets put back on track, the disease indicating parameters improve spontaneously.

Sleep serves the recovery and strengthening of our organ system. Without sleep we would not be able to exist. That is only one side of the coin. Within the sleep there is a space, which is reserved for the invigoration and recuperation of our soul: the space of the dreams.

Before we go there, we should learn something about the natural brain rhythm. The rhythm is what allows us to be awake, and it also guides us towards sleep and the dreams.

Being awake and sleeping is characterized through a natural brain rhythm, consisting of measurable oscillations. Beta-waves (38 – 15 Hz) are the brainwaves of normal waking consciousness. Alpha-waves (14 – 8 Hz) are measured during a relaxed basic state, like in daydreams. During the dream we can differentiate between Theta-waves (7 – 4 Hz), which signify the REM phase and Delta-waves (3 – 0.5 Hz), the brainwaves with the lowest frequency, which are registered during the dreamless deep sleep.

Waking and sleeping are seemingly separate from each other, and yet both states are in an eternal relationship. We are calling the connection of the Beta and Delta-waves the “masculine”, “intellectual”, “physical” axis, whereas the connection from Alpha to Theta is the expression of the opposite “feminine” pole. Here internalization, rest, dreaming and ongoing meditation are located.

An overactivity of the “Beta-Delta” axis shows people, who rarely remember their dreams and who often remain in toxic sleep. Thus the brain rhythm is disturbed as far as the regeneration of the brain is concerned.

An overactivity of the “Alpha-Theta” axis also shows that the need for regeneration is not satisfied. The overactivity of “dreaming” results in a deficit in the cellular body structure. Only the balanced rhythm of all four waves together can guarantee health, permanent regeneration and freedom on the inside and outside.

The question “Why do we have to sleep?” cannot be answered easily, when looking closely at the brain rhythms and the resulting effects on the entire system of the body. What we know is that the rhythm of sleep regenerates the body as well as the brain. That this has to occur in certain phases during the night has been proven through numerous examinations in many sleep labs. Because of all these factors a healthy sleep plays such a crucial role in Esogetic medicine.