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Nobody knows why we sleep but we all need to. The
average adult sleeps for 7 hours and 20 minutes a night but 8% of adults are content
with five hours or less. Babies need 14 to 18 hours
and elderly people need less than when they were young but often take a nap during
the day. There are two kinds of sleep - light sleep
and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is associated with dreaming. If
you wake up during REM sleep you will probably remember your dream. Everyone
at some time has difficulty sleeping but if you miss a few hours of sleep, no
harm is done. However, if you try to stay awake night
after night you lose the ability to concentrate and your judgement becomes bad. You
start to imagine strange things and to behave abnormally. Many
people take drugs to help them to sleep and become addicted to sleeping pills. It
is better to try to avoid them if you can and try to identify the problem and
to remove it. | 
