> sleep is when you clear out waste products in your brain. It's unfortunately more complicated than this: we also clear out the same waste products in our br

> sleep is when you clear out waste products in your brain. It's unfortunately more complicated than this: we also clear out the same waste products in our brain during wakefulness. Mostly at a higher rate, too. Perhaps there's some unique way in which this happens during sleep but this certainly isn't the "key" (if there is in fact one) to why we need to sleep.