LEARN TO SLEEP

Do we learn to sleep? The answer is yes. This is for the same reason as a little boy knows that when he feels the urge he should do it in the toilet and not in the sitting room. A learning process, popularly known as toilet training, is involved. The same is true of sleep. We learn to sleep at night and stay awake during the day, even if we sometimes feel sleepy during the day.

We are more familiar with other learning experiences, such as learning to drive a car, learning to ride a bicycle, and so on. We take for granted that we know how to sleep, but in fact we all had to learn to sleep.

Psychologically, there are three kinds of activities:

* Innate activities—no learning is required

* New activities—a lot of learning is involved, e.g. driving

* Modified innate activities, such as toilet training and sleeping

Innate activities are basic activities that require no learning, including breathing, crying, smiling, reaction to pain, and so on. These are biological activities that are built into our system.

At the other extreme, there are new activities and skills which require learning from scratch. We spend years in school to learn how to read and write. We attend many lessons to learn to drive, and we learn to ride a bicycle after many falls. In fact, we are learning all the time without knowing it. We are imitating, copying from others, and modifying ourselves all the time. Indeed, it is the acquisition and accumulation of new skills, created and handed down through previous generations, that makes the human race so superior.

‘Modified9 innate activities are innate activities that are modified by learning; this learning is seen to be essential if the person is to conform to the norms of society. The most well known example is toilet training. From birth, babies have no concept and respect of when and where to relieve themselves; hence they have to wear nappies. It is considered normal for babies to wet and dirty their nappies at any time of the day. When they reach the age of about three it is no longer considered normal for them to do it anywhere they wish. They learn to go to the toilet and to do it properly there. This learning is gradual, and the activities are modified to conform to the expectation of parents and the pressure of society.

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