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April 22, 2011

Strange But True!

Q. From a Cleveland, Ohio, reader: “I'm a restless sleeper, a real tosser and turner, but I've never once awakened on the floor. So what keeps us from falling out of bed at night while we sleep?”

A. There are many opportunities for accidental self-injury during sleep: twisting our PJs round our limbs and neck, lying on vulnerable body parts, suffocating in the pillows, and of course falling out of bed, says gerontologist Kevin Morgan of Loughborough University's Sleep Research Centre. Fact is, we've evolved to sleep to stay safe at night; as sight-dependent animals, we're a bit of a liability to ourselves stumbling around in the darkness, almost sure to end up as a meal!


 
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