Why Do We Sleep

It is recommended to have at least eight hours of sleep every day. This is especially recommended for today’s adult professional. Now, some people are lucky enough to get the full eight hours recommended. Others, unfortunately, get just about four to six hours of sleep each day. Regardless, they are still able to function well enough. Or so they claim.But regardless of how many hours of sleep you get, do you really know why you sleep? Just why do we sleep? The seemingly easy way to answer this question is to liken the activity of sleep to eating. You eat to sustain your life – that is a fact. In this sense, hunger becomes a protective mechanism, something that we go through to make sure that we eat and consume all of the nutrients that our bodies need to function efficiently. The body needs food and nutrients to grow and to repair tissues so we consume food to do exactly this. Going without food is detrimental to our health and ultimately makes us feel hungry. When you go without sleep, it makes us feel sleepy as well. So in this sense, eating and sleeping are alike. Still, it does not answer the logic behind sleeping – the need to sleep itself.

Why do we really sleep? There have been several theories and angles explored by scientists and researchers. Sleep patterns, sleep deprivation, sleep cycles, all these and more have been studied profusely. And as a result, several theories have been reached.

First, there’s the Inactivity Theory. Another name for this theory is the Evolutionary Theory or the Adapative Theory. This theory suggests that the inactivity at nighttime is ultimately an adaptation taken on by the early organisms. The main reason behind organisms adapting inactivity at nightfall is survival. By being inactive, or by sleeping, organisms survive better because they are out of danger. By survival of the fittest, this evolutionary inactivity was passed on to the organisms of today, including the present human species, and is now globally recognized as sleep.

Another theory is about Energy Conservation. This theory mainly suggests that the purpose of sleep is the reduction of the demand for energy during day or night. Mainly with animals, and not human beings, this theory better works at night because this is when it becomes more difficult to hunt for food. Since this is the case, then it is better to conserve one’s energy and just sleep at night.Check out How long should a mattress last?

But one of the compelling theories to date is the Brain Plasticity Theory. This theory suggests that sleep has a correlation with the changes that take place in the organization and the structure of the human brain. Infants, for example, spend approximately 13 to 14 hours in a day just sleeping. Half of the time they sleep, they are actually in the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep – the phase where dreams take place. The theory here is that an infant’s brain hasn’t fully developed yet. Thus, the need to sleep more suggests that sleep is needed for the development of the organization and structure of the brain. Get the details from Mattress reviewed

There are still other theories out there. But even if there’s no be-all and end-all theory behind it yet, we do know that we need it to sleep for some great reason.