Sleep is an extraordinary phenomenon that is still clouded in mystery. All organisms experience some form of sleep, or phases of rest/repair and activity/energy expenditure. Not only that, but these phases in all life-forms (including individual cells) are tied to the rhythms of the planet in the form of periods of light and darkness, otherwise known as circadian rhythms.

Although sleep science is uncovering profound links between sleep and physical health, sleep and mental health, sleep and rhythms of the planet, there is still a lot to discover. Sleep touches on physical, mental, emotional, relational, societal, environmental, cosmological and spiritual domains.

Sleep can remind us that we are a part of nature, that we are attuned to the cosmos and the rhythms of the earth. It is a time that we must surrender and allow our bodies' inner intelligence to take over.

We have created a world less and less suited to our own ability to thrive. This world is actually hostile to our natural inclinations and as a result we are experiencing increasing mental, spiritual and physical ill health.

This is due to lack of balance in our thinking, our world view, our society and our lifestyles.

Mentally, we are not soothed by sounds of nature but alarmed by blasts of noises of engines and mortars of the built environment. We are disconnected from a model of being that nature provides.

Our yang-dominant culture is hostile to all yin-dominance. Our society is, in fact, engaged in a War on Yin. That is yin as nature, as repose, as rest, as darkness, as mystery, as feminine, as wildness, as the subconscious mind. Sleep is yin. Sleep is surrender, our dark mysterious bodies working their magic to restore us to a fresh new day.

In truth, life needs balance. Yin and yang.

What is health? A system that is growing in coherence. For a human being health is more than the absence of disease; it is mental, spiritual and physical well-being. A sense of aliveness, vibrant energy, positivity, meaning and purpose.

We have become sickly, low energy zombies feeding passively on unnourishing substances sold as food, absorbing mind-numbing entertainment, sitting at desks, in cars, on couches all day. We are unhappy and ill.

We tout our longevity as a mark of progress in health, however, much of that time is a long slow dying due to chronic disease. We can spend 10-25% of our lifespan in ill health and we think of that as normal aging - it is not.

We have become quintessential consumers, our unhappiness feeding the vicious cycle of attempted happiness (i.e. dopamine spikes) via shopping and other addictions.

Sleep is a nexus point of our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. Sleep has been damaged by our culture's War on Yin - and can also lead us back into a state of balance.

Sleep is a core necessity for health. Sleep impacts our systems at all levels; physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. On the physical level, sleep is when our bodies restore and repair. Sleep is part of the balance required of life to go through cyclic processes, to restore energy and for our body's hormonal, neuronal and immune communication systems to function efficiently.

With sleep we feel restored and alert. We need it, we crave it and we must surrender to it in order to function. Sleep reminds us that we are animals on planet earth, that we are not in control of everything, that we must relinquish our egoic minds to the domain of mystery. Sleep is a paradox in our land of conquering only to become conquered.