• Question: Why do we sleep

    Asked by beccawilko to Angus, Christian, Hannah, Laura, Simon on 26 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Hannah Bentham

      Hannah Bentham answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      I had to look this up because my first answer was “Because we get tired” and I realised that was not very scientific! 🙂

      Apparently it is still a mystery as to why we sleep. But recent research suggests that we sleep for memory consolidation. This is when memories and experiences are refreshed and reorganised without interference from our thoughts when we are awake.

      Also, sleep may help ease bad experience with the suggestion that the brain might sort out unpleasant or traumatic events during snoozing time.

    • Photo: Laura Roberts Artal

      Laura Roberts Artal answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      I’m no expert in this field at all. What Hannah found out is really interesting. I’ve also read that sleeping is the time when our body does most of the fixing of bits of itself that are broken. It also builds the bits that we need to function and its the time when our hairs and nails grow the most.
      I might be wrong, I’d be really interested to see what the other scientist think.

    • Photo: Simon Holyoake

      Simon Holyoake answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      I’m in the same boat as the others on this!

      I know our brains appear to need rest, as sleep deprivation can have all kinds of nasty effects on our health

      As Laura says, our bodies often make the best use of sleep time to repair damage and fight off illness (ever gone to bed with a cold having felt miserable all day and woken up feeling much better? I know I have!)

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