DailyDirt: Why Do We Sleep?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Jul 25th 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

There are numerous hypotheses for how and why sleep is important. The facts show that a wide range of animals need sleep and that a lack of sleep is extremely unhealthy, especially if sleep deprivation lasts more than a few days. For example, sleep-deprived lab rats will die more quickly than rats deprived of food. Sleep is clearly essential to normal functioning, but there's no definitive reason for it. Here are just a few interesting articles that discuss the mystery of the function behind sleep.

There's no consensus on why animals need to sleep, but there are few (or no) species that are completely devoid of a resting state. Sleep seems to serve at least one essential function, but it's just not clear what that function is (or if there are more). [url]
One reason for why we need sleep might be that our brains need it to prune back synaptic formation to prevent a detrimental build-up of brain activity. But then why does synaptic pruning (usually) require an unconscious state? [url]
The function of sleep may vary across species -- given that marine mammals can go without sleep for remarkably long periods of time. Sleep might have evolved as a trait from a common ancestor, but it could be an example of convergent evolution (eg. echolocation in bats vs dolphins). The jury is still out. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: animals, biology, brains, evolution, rem, sleep, species, synaptic formation

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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2013 @ 5:49pm

So sharks need sleep?
How do you tell if a spider is sleeping?
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- Rich, 25 Jul 2013 @ 6:05pm
  
  Re: So sharks need sleep?
  Yes, Jacques Cousteau proved long ago that "sharks don't sleep" is a myth.
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Pixelation, 25 Jul 2013 @ 6:22pm

I sleep so I can dream of electric sheep.
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- t3rminus (profile), 25 Jul 2013 @ 8:07pm
  
  Re:
  Failed the Voigt-Kampff test, did we?
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  - Pixelation, 25 Jul 2013 @ 10:44pm
    
    Re: Re:
    "Failed the Voigt-Kampff test, did we?"
    
    Didn't finish the test. Only got to the question about my mother...
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- Kal Zekdor (profile), 25 Jul 2013 @ 8:10pm
  
  Re:
  But do electric sheep sleep?
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2013 @ 9:11pm

This makes me jealous :( I'm a horrible insomniac and I'm lucky to one or two hours of sleep a night. On top of strong prescription sleeping aids I eat a good sixty benadryl every day in the hopes of knocking myself out.
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Depressed UNIX Geek, 25 Jul 2013 @ 9:28pm

Gad, this is depressing
So this means people are just like Windows. They crap out if they don't get the occasional reboot (sleep)
Sigh. I want a upgrade....
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McCrea (profile), 25 Jul 2013 @ 11:26pm

That's one tired article.
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Hector, 28 Jul 2013 @ 1:08pm

Why we sleep
Here's a new idea: www.hecramos.com/why-we-sleep/
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