Sleep Is the Ultimate Brainwasher 210
sciencehabit writes "Every night since humans first evolved, we have made what might be considered a baffling, dangerous mistake. Despite the once-prevalent threat of being eaten by predators, and the loss of valuable time for gathering food, accumulating wealth, or having sex, we go to sleep. Scientists have long speculated and argued about why we devote roughly a third of our lives to sleep, but with little concrete data to support any particular theory. Now, new evidence (abstract, full text paywalled) has refreshed a long-held hypothesis: During sleep, the brain cleans itself."
During sleep, the Cerebrospinal fluid fills channels in the brain, collecting waste products. It uses a lot of energy, leading to the hypothesis that the brain can't clean up waste while also processing sensory input.
Neat. (Score:2, Insightful)
I used to imagine it as the brain defragmenting itself. Imagine that! A computer guy seeing biological topics through a computer-geek lens!
Couldn't you come up... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Like so many computer programs... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Evolutionary pressure to not sleep? (Score:4, Insightful)
We, sleeping creatures are "lucky"* that by "coincidence" the day is divided in two parts so different that an animal well adapted to one of them don't fare very well on the other. So, most animals adapt to one of those parts, and just protect themselves the best way they can at the other. For nearly all animals, being awake wouldn't make much of a difference.
* Lucky that we adapted to exactly the environment that we evolved on. What a coincidence, isn't it?
Re: Like so many computer programs... (Score:0, Insightful)
Try anti-depressants and SSRI's.
It's no coincidence that "fibromyalgia" basically only affects crazy women.
Wow...they start taking their meds and amazingly enough it soon clears up.
Funny that.
Fibromyalgia is the latest in bullshit conditions to have......when the underlying cause is you have mental health issues.