Why do we sleep?

[David Smillie]

: My apologies--a bit of an exaggeration there.  The situation, as observed
: from a second-hand viewpoint (as I am asleep at the time), is that, upon
: falling asleep, my body starts to radiate quite a bit more heat than it
: does under waking conditions.  I haven't noticed a similar radiation with
: other adults, but have observed an increase in heat radiation by infants
: during sleep cycles; I wonder if there may be a connection.  Personally,
: the increase of temp when I fall asleep is dramatic enough for another to
: tell immediately that I am "over the brink".  Has anyone else noticed this
: phenomenon, or have a hypothesis about it?

I have, on occasion, when falling asleep in the afternoon, noticed that my
body temperature does tend to increase and I get rather 
dehydrated. This only happens when I go to sleep outside my normal sleep
cycle. Doubtless too much silver among the gold.:-) --
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David Smillie                                      Ancora imparo
Carleton University 

Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.--Baltasar Gracian
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