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Why Do We Sleep

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Why do we sleep?

Why do we sleep, how is it necessary? It is well known that you have to sleep. If you do not sleep you will die in a week or so. With that being said what does sleep do? We know it makes you feel alert and energized. Is it just evolution at work to keep us out of harm’s way at night? Is sleep our body’s way of conserving energy? Is it a way for our brains to imprint memories, and be creative? Does it clean our brain out? Do we actually need eight hours of sleep? Or is it a mix of a few reasons?
Sleep is defiantly an important function in our bodies or we would not get so tired at night we just can’t stay awake. Our brains have a region devoted to letting us know when to sleep it is our biological clock. It knows when we should be awake and when we should sleep and you cannot change it knows that when the sun comes up its time to be awake and a few hours after dark it is time to sleep. But what does sleep do other than have you lay still and have dreams?
Is evolution the reason? Are we safer by not hurting ourselves at night or worse getting preyed upon? That fact is debatable. By not moving around you won’t hurt yourself. And the predators will not find you as easily. But there are other things to worry about. What about natural disasters like fires, floods, tornados, and earth quakes? I would think being conscious would be more helpful with these situations even if you are not moving around. So I think we can rule out the evolutionary trait.
Does sleep conserve energy? The answer is yes, but it is only about 110 calories. Compared to someone being awake and not moving around a lot. Also your brain does not shut down during sleep. Some parts actually are more active while we sleep than when we are awake. And we are in no shortage of food so that further disproves that. We could easily just eat more to make that minor calorie saving.
Are we more creative with proper amounts of sleep? Do we retain the information we learn better with good sleeping habits? We are actually up to three times more creative with proper sleep. And that would go far in the work place you don’t want to be passed up for promotions because you don’t sleep well enough. While you sleep your brain processes all of your short term memories and decides what is important to keep and what is irrelevant. But when you don’t sleep enough you have a lot of problems you forget important things like important dates, final papers, deadlines, names etc. I think this is in an important reason we need sleep.
Will good sleep clean out our brain? Yes it does. How you might ask. During the day our body creates waste that our liver and kidneys clean out, but our brain is cut off from this cleaning system. Our brain creates waste during the time we are awake and our body can get rid of some of it. But it still builds up over the day. How does sleep help this if the brain is still active? Nero plasticity, while we sleep our neurons actually shrink up to fifty present. This makes room for the fluid to flush two times the waste out compared to the time you are awake. And it flushes it strait to your liver. This is definitely another important part of sleep.

Why do doctors recommend eight hours of sleep? Getting enough sleep is important because it lets all of these processes take their time and do their work. It also has a lot to do with mental health, and physical health. People who only get five hours of sleep have a high risk of being drug dependent. That is because your body is looking for quick fixes to the underlying problem of sleep deprivation. Its two favorite drugs are nicotine and caffeine. Also it will tell your body you need carbohydrates, which can lead to obesity and type two diabetes. With mental health it can lead to depression. So guys just do your best to get your eight hours in tis a life saver. I have one question though do you need an alarm clock to wake up? If yes you need more sleep!
So in conclusion it is a mix of a few reasons. We are more creative. Our memories are much better. We save 100 calories! It keeps our brain squeaky clean and ready for the day. It can help people stay away from drugs. It can help prevent diabetes, and obesity.

Produced in partnership with WGBH Educational Foundation http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits-of-sleep/why-do-we-sleep ted talks june 2013 why do we sleep

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