Whenever a case was giving me a hard time, I found that it was a good idea to occasionally get away from it. When I was too focused on the case, I thought that I sometimes became numb to some details that would be obvious to a fresh mind.

So whenever I got stuck, and I just didn't seem to be making progress on anything, I would write some notes to myself. My head, now relieved of the burden of storing these facts, no longer held the urge to bang itself into the wall.

I was then free to relax. By stepping away, my mind had a chance to reorganize everything it had been holding in chaotic fashion. When all the facts had become restructured in my mind, I would be better able to find what I needed, and build on it. REM sleep was especially good for this.

Normal sleep, which made up most of our sleep time, was great for general recharging. Our cells rejuvenate themselves, our digestive systems purge themselves, our skin sheds its outermost layer, our hearts slow to a snail's pace, and we breathe more deeply than at any time during the day.

But REM sleep, that was an entirely different matter. For a long time, we had no idea why it was needed, what other function needed to be served besides just lying there, resting, and letting your body do all the work. We knew that your skeletal muscles were paralyzed during REM sleep, with the exception of your eyes, which jump all over the place, hence the term REM sleep, short for rapid eye movement.

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