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We really need to figure out what sleep is for. It seems important.
by idlewords 10y ago
We really need to figure out what sleep is for. It seems important.
- visarga 10y agoIt functions as a regularizer in learning and reduces unnecessary energy use.
- stucat 10y agoWhile those are benefits of sleep, I don't believe we consider them to be the reason we sleep.
- empath75 10y agohttps://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/brain-may-flush-out-toxins-during-sleep https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/brain-may-flus...
- kerbalspacepro 10y agoThis seems the most likely to me, purely based off the fact that going on without sleep gives the same feeling in the head as walking a long time gives me in the foot and legs.
- 24gttghh 10y agoSo, the brain is an electro-chemical engine, and like other engines, it must be shut down to perform regular maintenance so the engine lasts longer, and is less prone to error conditions.
- jacobolus 10y agoNot just the brain, but the whole body. If I go without enough sleep, my hair and skin start getting greasy, my immune system is weakened, my muscles start feeling tired, etc.
- Retra 10y agoYour hair and skin get greasy because you aren't bathing, not because you aren't sleeping.
- jacobolus 10y agoYou are incorrect, as you can trivially verify yourself with a few days’ first-hand observation. Even if you don’t bathe at all for a few days, or just rinse yourself with water (skip the oil-stripping soap for this experiment), the greasiness of hair/skin fluctuates noticeably throughout the day, and increases substantially after a day or two of insufficient sleep. (That’s right, the greasiness will go up and then subsequently go down, without your doing anything special in between.) [Side note: it’s pretty disappointing when people make confident sounding assertions about things they clearly don’t know anything about and didn’t bother to do the tiniest trivial bit of study. I find this happens quite commonly even in discussion venues where there’s ostensibly a cultural value placed on reasoning and evidence.]
- debatem1 10y agoI've been sleep deprived for extended periods before and never noticed the difference. Is there sample size > 1 evidence for this you're aware of?
- Retra 10y agoYou want to casually study myself while sleep-deprived? That sounds like a recipe for trustworthy results, I'm sure. Of course I'm going to get more greasy after two days of not using soap. I don't see how that would verify anything that you are claiming.