4 ms·

Brain is very active when you sleep, a lot is happening. Imagine sleep is just a mutex on big set of data on which computation needs to be made, compression, da

by lossolo 10y ago

Brain is very active when you sleep, a lot is happening. Imagine sleep is just a mutex on big set of data on which computation needs to be made, compression, data reorganization, index optimizing. Data that you received that day is segregated , decisions are made which data to keep and which to delete. After that lock is freed and you wake up. If you don't sleep your system will run slower and slower over time and will timeout more and more queries until it will start to return corrupted data. You need to sleep to keep the system healthy.

rudolf0 10y ago
Sure, but that's just pure speculation.
mike_hock 10y ago
Sleep = vacuum freeze analyze
- mey 10y ago
  Garbage Collection
  - amelius 10y ago
    We need a concurrent GC.
    - pokemon-trainer 10y ago
      It's called Red Bull. It gives you wings. Nature is now selling native advertising.
dmreedy 10y ago
That is a theory. There are many other theories too. The OP's observation was that we don't really have a firm grasp on which theory or theories is/are correct, in the way we (believe) that we understand something like the nature of chemical interactions, or the limits of finite-state computation. Sleep, like many many other functions of the brain, not the least of which being its most recognizable function (to us), remains something speculated about without broad consensus. As per the fantastic quote in the linked wiki article, "As far as I know, the only reason we need to sleep that is really, really solid is because we get sleepy."
- burke 10y ago
  A theory, sure. Another thing to remember about biological systems is that complex features like sleep rarely serve just one purpose. There will generally be one cause that was killing lots of members of a population which the feature was developed to mitigate, but other "reasons" may have grown over time as evolution "discovered" other ways the feature can help. I think in general, good-sounding theories produced by the "speculative evolutionary biology" game are actually very often right -- but only describe one facet of a supremely messy system with boundaries that don't conform cleanly to the mental models we try to impose.

by lossolo 10y ago

rudolf0 10y ago

Sure, but that's just pure speculation.

mike_hock 10y ago

Sleep = vacuum freeze analyze

mey 10y ago
Garbage Collection
- amelius 10y ago
  We need a concurrent GC.
  - pokemon-trainer 10y ago
    It's called Red Bull. It gives you wings. Nature is now selling native advertising.

dmreedy 10y ago

That is a theory. There are many other theories too. The OP's observation was that we don't really have a firm grasp on which theory or theories is/are correct, in the way we (believe) that we understand something like the nature of chemical interactions, or the limits of finite-state computation. Sleep, like many many other functions of the brain, not the least of which being its most recognizable function (to us), remains something speculated about without broad consensus. As per the fantastic quote in the linked wiki article, "As far as I know, the only reason we need to sleep that is really, really solid is because we get sleepy."

burke 10y ago
A theory, sure. Another thing to remember about biological systems is that complex features like sleep rarely serve just one purpose. There will generally be one cause that was killing lots of members of a population which the feature was developed to mitigate, but other "reasons" may have grown over time as evolution "discovered" other ways the feature can help. I think in general, good-sounding theories produced by the "speculative evolutionary biology" game are actually very often right -- but only describe one facet of a supremely messy system with boundaries that don't conform cleanly to the mental models we try to impose.