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Is a life without sleep possible? Among the consequences of fatigue are impaired concentration, memory lapses, irritability and general malaise. In extreme cases sleeplessness can even be fatal.
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What happens while we are asleep? In every culture, people have speculated and theorised about the nature of sleep. It is frequently associated with other states of unconsciousness. Death, in particular, was long considered to be closely related to sleep.
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Artists and scholars often attribute their creative ideas to nocturnal inspiration. In the visual arts, the search for an artistic vocabulary for what happens in dreams has in particular highlighted their nightmarish, disturbing or fantastic aspects.
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Sleep cannot always be taken for granted. Throughout history, individuals have spent long nights unable to get to sleep. Disturbance caused by noise or vermin can be dealt with using relatively simple means. Personal sleep disorders, however, have become one of the most widely spread medical complaints.
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Industrialisation, with the increase in shift work and night work, has radically changed our sleeping habits. Instead of the internal clock, the sleep of modern workers is regulated by alarm clocks, electric lights and artificial stimulants.