Bio-Hazard Posted December 30, 2005 Report Share Posted December 30, 2005 It's said that eight hours of sleep is usually a good idea if you want your body to recover mentally and physically, but I question, "Why do people have to sleep?" Now, from what I understand, if people don't sleep their brain usually gets a bit fried and their body more fatigued. What happens during these eight hours of sleep though? What mechanism in the brain and body starts going away to work as someone sleeps? What I'm trying to get at is, why can't people create some type of catalyst to speed up all the mind and body processes so they don't have to sleep? From some people I've spoken to, they've taken illicit drugs and they in no way were fatigued on things such as methamphetamines. However, I do question their mental stability and cognitive processes for somewhat normal living. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
questor Posted December 30, 2005 Report Share Posted December 30, 2005 the body is not a perpetual motion machine. if you study the physiology of muscles, you find there are waste products built up as activity takes place. the muscles must return to homeostasis and the waste products must be removed or converted back to reusable energy. the brain needs the same thing. you may run overtime on caffeine or adrenaline for awhile, but then you must rest/sleep to get back to homeostasis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drip Curl Magic Posted December 30, 2005 Report Share Posted December 30, 2005 I've been and insomniac for as long as I can remember, What I'm wondering is...why is it that the first 24 hours or so are the hardest to get though. I notice that after a couple days of no sleep, my body just kind of accepts the fact that I'm not sleeping... and then I feel less tired. Eventually, I do crash after a few days... but it's always hard to get to the sleeping state. What is it that causes this effect? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted December 30, 2005 Report Share Posted December 30, 2005 It's said that eight hours of sleep is usually a good idea if you want your body to recover mentally and physically, but I question, "Why do people have to sleep?" ___I don't see any great agreement in the literature about why we need sleep, but there is a lot of interesting work going on in the quest for such agreement.___I recall a study wherein a person went deep into a cave to live for weeks. Without the daily Sun cycle to prompt the sleep cycle, an entirely different time cycle manifested. As I recall, the person settled into a 24 1/2 hour cycle which divided up into longer than "normal" work periods & sleep periods.___Yesterday, I went into a very depressive & angry mood which worsened as the day went into night. I woke today to find (thankfully) that the bitter mood disapeared. I think there is a considerable difference between the benefits of sleep for the brain & the muscles. The brain doesn't turn off during sleep like muscles, in fact the brain "turns off" the muscles to prevent the body from acting on the dream images.___To sleep, perchance to dream.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HydrogenBond Posted December 30, 2005 Report Share Posted December 30, 2005 One possible explanation for sleep is connected to the brain's restoring its neurons. When we are awake the neurons fire at a higher rate. Although the neuron recover, the constant firing may alter branching processes to reflect a net lowering of neuron potential. One can see how behavior gets affected without sleep. With sleep the neurons are not firing as much and are able to regain potential via branching. When we awaken the next day, one begins the day with a more integrated brain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
questor Posted December 31, 2005 Report Share Posted December 31, 2005 the body constantly performs the activities necessary to achieve homostasis. restoration of electrical potential is one of these goals. sleep is necessary for all animal life to accomplish this. the central nervous system is responible for conscious activity and the parasympathetic nervous system carries on the involuntary activities. you might wonder what is the underlying , base chemical instigator for these reactions and how are they propagated? this is the stuff of life itself! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Posted January 1, 2006 Report Share Posted January 1, 2006 i dont realy agree in speeding up all human Recovery and cell reproduction.. just leave the body to its work in the sleep... like all other animals, they sleep. and so should we. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
otcartsid Posted January 1, 2006 Report Share Posted January 1, 2006 don't you like sleep, bio-hazard? :xparty:I agree with Greg. Sleep is a natural part of life. I personally think it's wonderful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khan N. Singh Posted January 11, 2006 Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 melatonin is produced by the body while you sleep at night. you can see a great list of its effects ( it is considered a 'master hormone', produced by the pineal gland) at wikipedia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
otcartsid Posted January 11, 2006 Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 Today I learned a bit about sleep inertia (that "morning" grogginess people get which may last from 10 mins to 2 hours!). I found it so interesting that how bad this "drunkenness" is depends on when in your sleep cycle you wake up. When awoken from deep sleep, the sleeper feels groggy, tired and sometimes irritable. However, if someone wakes up from a lighter stage of sleep, they will feel more recharged, invigorated, energetic, and alert. Furthermore it turns out coffee doesnt give you a jolt! The sleep inertia will go away by itself in the same amount of the time that it takes for the caffeine to "kick in" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queso Posted January 11, 2006 Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 yeah, think about it.when you go to sleep, you slip further and further into conciousness.deeper and deeper, you actually fall towards death, which is ironic.It is evident that if you wake up from a deep sleep, you will definitely feel worse than waking up from that last stage of sleep where dreams are easily remembered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
otcartsid Posted January 11, 2006 Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 it's interesting that you point that out...I guess people would get frustrated (even if it's just subconsiously) with themselves for not being able to remember how they spent their time in dreamland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queso Posted January 11, 2006 Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 hehe. Natural balance, my friend.Natural Balance.The rhythms of the universe.It all ties in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khan N. Singh Posted January 11, 2006 Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 this is *somewhat* related Bright light can suppress nighttime melatonin production in humans, but ordinary indoor light does not have this effect. This finding suggested that bright light may have other chronobiologic effects in humans as well. Eight patients who regularly became depressed in the winter (as day length shortens) significantly improved after 1 week of exposure to bright light in the morning (but not after 1 week of bright light in the evening). The antidepressant response to morning light was accompanied by an advance (shift to an earlier time) in the onset of nighttime melatonin production. These results suggest that timing may be critical for the antidepressant effects of bright light. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3798117&dopt=Abstract Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khan N. Singh Posted January 11, 2006 Report Share Posted January 11, 2006 yeah, think about it.when you go to sleep, you slip further and further into conciousness.deeper and deeper, you actually fall towards death, which is ironic.It is evident that if you wake up from a deep sleep, you will definitely feel worse than waking up from that last stage of sleep where dreams are easily remembered. or in my case, not wake up at all :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
otcartsid Posted January 12, 2006 Report Share Posted January 12, 2006 haha Khan! and thanks for the interesting tidbit about light therapy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niin Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 One of the reason people have to sleep is to preserve memory funtions. Research have showed that going without sleep affect you abbility to remember. When people sleep a process take place some of the time where a kind of random firering of neurons happens. This is to preserve memory health among other things. If you where awake while this happend....your mind(consciousnes) would try to figure out what is going on...so as to react to the incoming signals. That is why you are unconscious while you sleep. by the way...the body also uses another trick to prevent unconscious movements while you sleep.If people awakes while this process is taking place (they become conscious) the random firering stop, but the mind is quick to try to figure out what the radom firering means. This is called having a dream. that is why most people normaly cant remember dreams....they dont wake up during this process. A dream is just a story your mind put together to try to get useable data out of the random firering of neurons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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