To sleep, perchance to dream

[Charles Lindsey]

http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/cover/...1006591,00.html

I thought this was just cool as all get out.

quote:

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Why We Sleep

You may think it's for your body, but it's really for your brain. The latest research is full of surprises

By CHRISTINE GORMAN

Maybe you have a big report due first thing in the morning. Or you're trying to deliver a truckload of fish before the wholesale market opens 150 miles away. Whatever the reason, you decide to stifle that yawn and push through the night. Sure, you've been awake 16 hours, but you have a giant thermos of coffee and a few tunes to keep you going. Your body, of course, is fighting you every step of the way.

Whether or not you realize it, your brain has already started to check out for the night.

That yawn was the first sign that you're not so awake as you think.

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Snipped the rest. It's a 5 page article.

[Guest]

subscription required.

One thing i read a while back said that the body itself does not require sleep, just periods of inactivity.

It was some sort of test done with people who had severe mental disorders and could not maintain cognitive thought.. sort of like a permanent alzheimers. Anyways they showed that those patients barely slept even though they were physically active for most of the day.

Apparently the brain (well a healthy brain) needs to wind down. I dont remember the exact way they described it but I remember it as sort of how RAM in a computer works. You accumulate a lot of 'memory' in your brain as you think, solve problems, talk, worry, plan ahead, remember stuff, etc, etc etc. Then it comes to a breaking point where theres too much stuff in memory ... but you cant 'dump it' like computers do. Instead the brain sort of dumps that mental stress during sleep.

Sleeping test subjects (no not the mentally ill ones) who had their heads monitored showed that during sleep the brain switches from emmiting a certain type of waves to another one (i dont remember which was which... but ill guess the alpha waves were the ones people use when awake and the delta waves when asleep).

the article ended with something like the reason people have lots of dreams or have dreamless sleep is because of this mental energy 'dumping' during sleep..those with little energy to dump had dreamless nights while those with lots of stuff to dump tended to dream a lot.. a sort of method to control the flow of the dump.

[Charles Lindsey]

I'm sorry it requires a subscription. Perhaps if you go to Time.com and then the science and health section.

That's how I got to it to assure it wouldn't require a subscription for you guys but apparently that failed as Time.com can detect i am on AOL