The Purpose of Sleep

Why do we need sleep? It’s a simple question, that is surprisingly difficult to answer. This article shines light into what happens during sleep, showing how important sleep is for our health.

This only partially answers the why. Finding out why all the beneficial and life saving processes that happen during sleep, don’t happen when we are awake, is the subject of complex research and not well understood.

Sleep allows your brain to consolidate memory and learn from the experiences of the previous day. This happens in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, while you dream, but even more so during deep and relaxing NREM 3 (Non-REM 3) sleep, in which dreams are rarer.

Your brain cleanses itself while you sleep. Waste products that have accumulated during the day are removed from brain cells. This doesn’t only include metabolic waste, but also harmful mis-folded proteins that are related to Alzheimer disease.

Not only your mind, but your body too recovers and repairs itself during sleep. Your brain releases growth hormones that help children grow and help adults repair damage and micro injuries to body tissues such as muscles, tendons, bone. Your heart gets a rest during sleep as it beats far more slowly. Your immune system rebuilds itself overnight, after having taken damage from protecting your body from external and internal threats during the day.

Unsurprisingly, a lack of sleep compromises all mentioned beneficial processes that occur during sleep. If you are sleep deprived your brain is slower to react to inputs, it has a lower plasticity. Your memory and your ability to learn are negatively affected. People who are sleep deprived have a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Your immune system is able to fight cancer by killing nascent cancerous cells. Your body is also able to repair DNA damage that can cause cells to become cancerous. Sleep deprivation robs your body of much of its ability to self heal. A higher risk of cancer can be the result. Some of these effects do not require years of lack of sleep. A pre-diabetic state for example can be entered after a single sleepless night. In animal-experiments scientists have shown that total lack of sleep for only a few days leads to death. To stay alive, we have to sleep.

Getting regular high quality sleep is imperative for preserving your health. Good organization and discipline can help prevent situations in which we need to work or study into the night. If there is no other way, then make sure your body can compensate by sleeping more the next night. However, you are only able to get back so much sleep. Keep having restless nights for several days in a row and you are starting to do lasting damage to your body and mind.

There are a number of habits you can follow to get more quality sleep. Stick to a regular sleep schedule. Make sure that it is dark when you sleep. Keep your bedroom at a comfortable temperature. If possible forgo using your mobile phone while in bed. Low energy LED lighting is biased toward blue light which upsets the natural circadian (24 hour) rhythm of your body. Use Ensven to help you fall asleep faster and stay in the deepest and most relaxing NREM 3 sleep phase for longer.