Why do we sleep?

[Pints]

Watching Mrs Pints sleep this morning, I'm left wondering why we need to sleep.

We know what happens when we don't sleep; tired, miserable, lack of concentration, etc. But why does this happen. What is happening to us when we go for prolonged periods without sleep, and what happens to us while we sleep?

[pad58]

I know, annoying isn't it? I hate missing anything because I was asleep.

[GALLARDOGUY]

I love sleeping! It's being awake that pisses me off!

[anonymous-user]

Because if you don't, you die.

Body needs its time of regeneration to reset and fix itself.

[Pints]

garyhun said:

Because if you don't, you die.

Body needs its time of regeneration to reset and fix itself.

Why can we not just stop moving about for a bit. Does it really need me to close my eyes and enter a subconscious state to regenerate?

[GALLARDOGUY]

That would take longer though.

The more 'sedative' we are the quicker we can regenerate.

In evolutionary terms I suppose the more effective the regeneration, the less time you have to spend with your guard down and vulnerable to attack.

[Fozziebear]

I hate sleeping, would much prefer to have 30 naps when needed. I've done 29hrs constant moving and didn't have any problems, had 3 hours sleep after and then did 10 hrs awake.

[Tallow]

There's a really good radio show on National Public Radio in the USA called Radiolab. They did an episode entirely dedicated to this subject a few yesrs ago. It's well worth a listen if you're wondering about that - very informative.

You can listen to it for free here: http://www.radiolab.org/2007/may/24/

[theshrew]

Because I love it

[Juanco20]

Best part of the day is those 8 hours sleep, especially on weekdays. I actually look forward to going to sleep, getting up is the hard part

Edited by Juanco20 on Saturday 13th April 10:28

[Dr Jekyll]

Some animals have evolved really odd ways of sleeping, birds sleeping in flight for example, but so far I haven't heard of any that avoid sleep altogether. So it must be important.

[Funk]

The time when we're asleep its also when your brain 'cements' everything you've learned that day. If you didn't sleep you wouldn't have memories.

[The_Doc]

garyhun said:

Because if you don't, you die.

Body needs its time of regeneration to reset and fix itself.

Absolutely correct.

We don't know why we need sleep. Funny, when you consider that perhaps 1/3 of your life you are laid down, doing nothing, in a non-responsive state.

If you don't dream (REM sleep) or are prevented from dreaming, it also appears to make your brain go pop and you develop mental illness.

And we don't know what dreams are for either.

[Pints]

The_Doc said:

Absolutely correct.

We don't know why we need sleep. Funny, when you consider that perhaps 1/3 of your life you are laid down, doing nothing, in a non-responsive state.

If you don't dream (REM sleep) or are prevented from dreaming, it also appears to make your brain go pop and you develop mental illness.

And we don't know what dreams are for either.

Interesting that we don't definitively know. What are the currently accepted theories?

[Grandad Gaz]

Interesting question.

Millions of years of evolution, I expect, with life adapting to the spin of the earth. Night and day.

Ever wondered how life would have evolved if one side of the earth always faced the sun and the other in total darkness. A bit like the moon circling the earth?

[anonymous-user]

Grandad Gaz said:

Ever wondered how life would have evolved if one side of the earth always faced the sun and the other in total darkness.

I have a vague idea

9

[StevieBee]

Nobody is 100% sure why we sleep but the most widely accepted reason is something to do with synapses and neurons needing to re-set to maintain normal cognitive function and not being able to do this whilst supporting normal daytime functions.

An analogy would be trying to service your car while it's still driving along.

[ShortShift811]

I like to think that sleep gives my body a chance to regenerate, as above, and my brain the opportunity to sort and file the day's / week's / month's events. When I'm particularly stressed, I'll often find I dream about whatever issue is bugging me. I read somewhere once that before you go to sleep, you should mentally file everything away (even imagine physically doing that) to prepare / relax yourself. Makes sense to me.

[anonymous-user]

It's also quite amazing how sleep is often the time when your brain provides the answers to questions that seem impossible to answer during the waking day.

The human body, and especially the brain, is a remarkable thing.

[StevieBee]

garyhun said:

It's also quite amazing how sleep is often the time when your brain provides the answers to questions that seem impossible to answer during the waking day.

The human body, and especially the brain, is a remarkable thing.

It has been shown the mind and brain (and thus body) is at its peak within 5 hours of waking before waining. I think it was Shummacher who first adopted this approach when racing, effectively re-setting his body clock so as much of each race fell within this time frame.