Could you keep it down? Can't you see we're trying to get a little shut-eye?

Sleep. It rejuvenates. It refreshes. It restores. And while it may seem as if sleep renders us inactive, the truth is quite the contrary. Our bodies, our brains, our minds are accomplishing great things while we slumber.

Dr Nilesh Dave, medical director of the Sleep and Breathing Disorders Centre at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, says: "When you get good-quality sleep and enough hours of it, it is amazing how much better patients' moods are, how much better they're functioning. They're truly happy."

During a series of studies in the 1980s, rats were forced to stay awake. After five days, they started dying.

In 2005, a 28-year-old South Korean man died after playing an online computer game for 50 straight hours with few breaks.

"You have a full-body collapse," Dr Dave says. "There's no stability in the brain. The body ends up not being able to restore itself."

Extracted from The Age