Lifestyle

Things about sleep that still can't be explained

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Since sleep is something we naturally know how to do since birth, you’d think we’d have it all figured out. But sleep is a real conundrum that we know surprisingly little about. There’s a reason treating the nation’s problem with sleep is so complicated. Turns out, sleep is still a big scientific mystery without many answers in sight.

Why do we sleep?

The most basic question of all, “Why do we sleep?,” has turned out to be a real head scratcher for scientists. It’s not that they haven’t tried to figure it out, it’s just that their research over the years has still not come up with a definitive answer.

Harvard Medicine published an article outlining some of the possibilities. The inactivity theory states that we evolved to sleep at night to protect us when we’re most vulnerable. If a lion is out on the prowl, it wouldn’t be great for us to be moving around and cooking a snack, whereas if we’re silently sleeping, they may not see us. Of course, they could come and attack when we have no defenses, but that’s conveniently not mentioned in the theory.

Another idea is we sleep to conserve energy. Back in the days when food wasn’t available via app 24/7, we may have slept so that we weren’t burning calories on high all day long. Now, sleep might be the one thing that stops us from eating every hour of the day. Or there’s the possibility is that sleep affects brain plasticity, so your brain could be reorganizing itself while you snooze. Babies need to sleep 13–14 hours a day to intellectually develop, leading some scientists to believe brain plasticity is sleep’s main function.

Lastly, it could be that sleep’s primary goal is to restore the body. Muscle growth and repair happen almost entirely during sleep, and without sleep, you may never get around to such restorative processes at all. Plus, your brain is spending its day building up adenosine, a molecule leftover from cell activity. As adenosine builds up, we feel sleepy. Part of the reason caffeine keeps us awake is that it blocks the actions of adenosine. So, the molecule continues to build up until we give in and fall asleep. Then, the brain can do a little house cleaning, get rid of the extra adenosine and you wake up feeling alert again.

Credit Grunge.com

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