The Brain’s Demands
Only the brain needs sleep. Other parts of our body are not in need of anything quite similar. It is interesting that we use the same word, “tired”, when describing the conditions leading to both sleep and cessation of physical activity. We spend an hour working in the garden or completing a run of 5 miles – and we are “tired”. Our body suggests that we take a little time off from physical labor and rest a bit. However, it is only a suggestion being made by our body. We can ignore the suggestion and continue to garden or run another five miles. Sometimes (at least in the logo of sports psychology) we “will” our body into doing a bit more work – and we ignore (at least temporarily) the signals emanating from our body regarding the value of reduced physical activity.
Such is not the case when we speak about being “tired” and needing to get some sleep. Our brain is not offering a suggestion. Rather, it is commanding that we fall asleep. It is very hard to ignore this command. We will tend to fall asleep – even if we are driving a car or trying to watch a movie. The demand for sleep can lead to the inconvenience of a missed movie or to the much more serious consequences of an automobile crash and the potential loss of lives. The chemicals involved in this demand for sleep are quite powerful and tend to override other chemicals that help to keep us awake.
It is also the case that when these chemicals are not present, it is very difficult to fall asleep. Our brain is doing a very good job of sustaining our vigilance and consciousness – even though we wish this were not so. We can do a few things to at least temporarily “trick” our mind (and body) into staying awake, whether this be ingesting caffeine or thinking about something that is filled with anxiety (what Robert Sapolsky describes as the human’s ability to imagine attacking lions in the form of financial, work-related, family-related, etc. fears and apprehensions). Neither of these alternatives is very attractive or healthy over the long term. There should be other ways to stay awake – or we should attend to our brain’s demands that we get some sleep.
Why Do We Need Sleep?
The benefits offered by sleep tend to circle around three important perspectives: (1) homeostatic regulation, (2) restoration and repair of bodily functions, and (3) storage and adjustment of mental functions. While these three perspectives are closely related, they do seem to arise from somewhat different sources of concern and interest. If you put together all of their limited perspectives, then you get an accurate sense and picture about the whole, complex biological process called Sleep.
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