5 ms·
"The team discovered that this increased flow was possible in part because when mice went to sleep, their brain cells actually shrank, making it easier for flui
by ksenzee 11y ago
"The team discovered that this increased flow was possible in part because when mice went to sleep, their brain cells actually shrank, making it easier for fluid to circulate. When an animal woke up, the brain cells enlarged again and the flow between cells slowed to a trickle." So no, probably not.
- amelius 11y agoI can't help but wonder if perhaps "dreaming" serves no function but is just a side-effect of our brain-cells shrinking (?)
- metasean 11y agoOr to 'entertain'/'occupy' the still operational brain-cells during the flushing period (like tv shows and movies during long flights or dialysis).
- Terr_ 11y agoBrains are metabolically costly, if it were frivolous is probably wouldn't happen. I'd wager it's more like keeping an engine idling because it's less expensive/dangerous than turning it all the way off and restarting it.
- Retra 11y agoFrom what I've read, the brain partially 'compartmentalizes' it's communications at regular intervals, and dreaming is what happens when this process finishes: the different compartments start communicating, synthesizing multiple independent thought processes into a cohesive whole. (Which would explain why they can be seemingly random and also relevant of recent events.)
- qiqing 11y agoThere is some evidence that dreaming is a side effect of defragging the memories of the day into long-term storage format.
- metasean 11y agoThere are related learning benefits to sleeping, in particular for materials studied shortly before sleep. http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits-of-sleep/learning-memory http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits... http://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch06_memory/studying_before_sleep.html http://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch06_memory/studying_before...