Thread: Why do we sleep?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Why+do+we+need+sleep%3F

wtf man...

Originally Posted by grasshoppa

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Why+do+we+need+sleep%3F

Haha made me laugh

But seriously every animal sleeps to a extent and I always heard the mind needs the rest the most.

But sorry I got no awsner but i've thought of this question many times and glad somebody asked it.

lmao, sorry that was pretty funny...

To rest and recuperate. Imagine a machine running 24 hours a day, surely at some point it would overheat if not given a break or a cooldown time.

Originally Posted by blackjack

To rest and recuperate. Imagine a machine running 24 hours a day, surely at some point it would overheat if not given a break or a cooldown time.

Well Computers can run no problem 24/7 with propper cooling techniques... So that may not be entirely true. Plus humans have a cooling technique like sweating, and can warm up via goosebumps.

Originally Posted by Xyn

Well Computers can run no problem 24/7 with propper cooling techniques... So that may not be entirely true. Plus humans have a cooling technique like sweating, and can warm up via goosebumps.

Exactly, and if we need to rest, Why cant we just lay down and chill and watch TV or something. Why do we have to shut our brains down?

I read somewhere once that while we sleep, fluid replenishes in our spine (what cushions the bones) and that our stomach also repairs itself. People who skip sleep often have a higher chance of developing ulcers and back problems.

your mind is more complex than any machine out there.
you need to sleep so that your body can work on itself during this time. resting won't do because your body is still in a mode of having to be alert.
when you are asleep this mode can still be on, but not as strongly, giving the body a chance to ignore the outside world and work on itself.
when you rest, your mind doesn;t go over everything that needs to be fixed or repaired. it only does a little bit. when you enter sleeping mode, your mind gets that chance to process everything and do what it can to repair it.

In ETWOLD, LaBerge states: "Some likely answers are to restore our body and mind, and to keep us out of trouble during the dark hours." However, we don't really know why we sleep. Is it to keep our minds from becoming overloaded? Is it to allow us to store our thoughts/experiences from the day into our long-term memory? Is it because cell-repair is more efficient when we sleep? These are all ideas, but no one knows for sure.

Kordan is right, no one really knows. but one thing we all know is that sleep is very important. you can try to go a long time without it but you'll either black out or start hallucinating or even maybe death?

check it out,

http://www.slate.com/id/2218092/

Originally Posted by aorozco

Kordan is right, no one really knows. but one thing we all know is that sleep is very important. you can try to go a long time without it but you'll either black out or start hallucinating or even maybe death?

check it out,

http://www.slate.com/id/2218092/

Dang...that sucks. I've always wondered why it is that we have to lose consciousness in order for all the replenishing to happen, though.

Find out and you could have a Nobel Prize!
I've wondered that too though; why can't I just sit down and read a book or watch a movie or something, and still have the same benefits as I get from sleep? But, sleep lets us have regular dreams and lucids so...I guess it's good!

I've always wanted to be like T'alc (sp!!) from... AHHHHH!, can't recall the name of one of my favorite shows EVER.

Anyway, the show was one of the longest running sci-fi shows on the Sci-fi channel. All he did was enter a deep meditative state for a couple hours or so each day. It worked just like sleep but he did it sitting up and it didn't take as long.

Deep sleep is good because we stop pretty much everything and carry out maintenance. REM sleep seems to have something to do with memory, no one is really certain.

As to why we can't do all this stuff while awake, there's nothing but guesses.

Stargate... I finally remembered the name of the show today lol

what is it?

Originally Posted by aorozco

Kordan is right, no one really knows. but one thing we all know is that sleep is very important. you can try to go a long time without it but you'll either black out or start hallucinating or even maybe death?

check it out,

http://www.slate.com/id/2218092/

I stayed up for three straight days without sleep. I started hearing all kinds of weird stuff. No visual hallucinations though. I also had a lot of chest pains and thought my heart was going to explode. I've had no other feeling like that before or after in my life. I think I'm ok.

Originally Posted by grasshoppa

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Why+do+we+need+sleep%3F

Hahah.

you know why we sleep? cuz we get tired.... lol. sorry. lol

Okay I thought I'd make some serious input.

Im currently studying for my flying exams and part of it is to do with the importance of sleep.

Sleep has loads of uses, but we only know about a few.

Replenishing Muscle Energy, (Duh) REM has something to do with memory, and also a couple I didn't know about; Without sleep or a regular sleep pattern, we loose the natural ability to roughly guess the time.
Sleep also maintains are ability for proper body temperature control.

I could have been more sciency but I haven't fully studied that part of my exams yet ;P

Originally Posted by Black_Mantle

I stayed up for three straight days without sleep. I started hearing all kinds of weird stuff. No visual hallucinations though. I also had a lot of chest pains and thought my heart was going to explode. I've had no other feeling like that before or after in my life. I think I'm ok.

That is your body telling you that you're starting to run close to the end of your rope. Soon, you may just pass out because your body will do all it can to keep from letting you kill it...I'm serious, go get some sleep.

we're living creatures, we need time to recharge. I really don't know enough to explain this in detail, but you mentioned that you want to do more with your 8 hours a day. This is the perfect reason to have a few lucid dreams.