Is sleep that important?

It is baffles me when people say or think that the brain is asleep when they’re asleep. The fact is that if your brain ever fell asleep, you’d be in a coma, or you’d be brain dead. After all, it’s a common saying that sleep is the cousin of death. Sleep is thought to be a passive activity, but in reality, there’s an orchestra of activities going on in the brain while you’re asleep. It is a very important routine you practice daily (under normal circumstances), and good sleep is just as essential as food and water to your body. We spend about one third of our lives sleeping – if you’re 30 years old, you’ve spent about 10 years sleeping! Go on calculating! – so it’s got to be really important!

A lot of research has been dedicated to sleep because it’s vital for memory, concentration, coordination, emotional and mental health, but the phenomenon of sleep is still a great mystery to us all. We know the stages of sleep and that the sleep cycle changes as we age; Infants can do 18 hours per day and older adults might only get 6 hours per night, spending less time in deep sleep.

We know sleep is vital to being healthy, because lack of it has dangerous consequences. Sleep deprivation can result in loss of focus and decreased response time among other things; it’s just as bad as being inebriated in some cases. Let’s focus on the brain here and answer the question…

What happens when your brain doesn’t sleep?

Check out the infographic from .Mic below:

*click the image to enlarge*

References

• BrainFacts.org
• NIH
• Brain Connection