Why do our bodies need sleep?
Why do our bodies need sleep? Thanks for asking. We spend around a third of our lives sleeping, and it's seen by some as a bit of a waste of time. Certain politicians, business leaders and celebrities boast about sleeping only five hours per night, or even being insomniacs. But perhaps they've underestimated just how essential sleep is for maintaining good health and ageing well.
Bear in mind that no one has ever gone longer than 11 and a half days without sleeping. As a point of comparison, Scottish man Angus Barbieri went 382 days without eating any solid food in the 1960s. And in 1979, an Austrian man survived 18 days without any food or water. So you get just how important sleep is for human life. As you may also remember from previous episodes of Do You Really Know?,
Not getting enough sleep can increase the risk of a person getting acute or chronic illnesses. Why is that then? What does our body do during sleep? A night of sleep consists of four to six cycles of approximately one and a half hours each. Each cycle comprises two types of sleep, slow wave sleep and REM sleep. Slow wave sleep promotes body repair.
For example, our skin produces new cells during slow wave sleep. The body eliminates waste and memory consolidation also takes place. Experts say that deep slow-wave sleep is the most restorative kind, in particular for physical fatigue. That's because it promotes the secretion of growth hormones that contribute to cell renewal. What happens during REM sleep?
The brain is highly active and we experience dreams. Our eyes make rapid movements beneath the eyelids and our heart rate goes up and down. The same is true for breathing. REM sleep represents 20% of total sleep time and was actually discovered relatively recently in 1959 by physician Michel Jouvet.
According to Freudian theory, REM sleep is the expression of a release of instinctual impulses, which are normally blocked by the preconscious. According to other theories, it may play an important role in either memory consolidation or forgetting.
Does sleep also help us assimilate experiences we've had during the daytime?
According to Activa Laboratories, it seems that sleep helps to maintain connections between our neurons that allows us to consolidate innate and acquired memory. So it also helps to assimilate, store and organize new knowledge. For all of these processes to be effective, the brain needs to be cut off from external stimuli, which can only happen when we go to sleep. There you have it.
Now you know why our bodies need sleep. In under three minutes, we answer your questions and help you understand the true meaning behind the trends, concepts and acronyms that are making headlines. Listen along and you will really know for sure.
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