Why Do We Sleep A Third Of Our Life?
Despite the great advances in science, the dream remains a terrain full of mysteries. In fact, we still don’t know how to answer precisely why we sleep and even less why we spend a good part of our lives doing it.
Until recently, sleep was thought to be a state of rest for the brain. Today it is known that this is not the case. Although we feel tired and this leads us to close our eyes, the truth is that the brain continues to work intensely. This opens up a world of conjecture as to why we sleep.
Science knows that during sleep there is a kind of purification, which allows better organize the information assimilated or collected during the day. We also know that having a sleepless night affects various cognitive functions. However, the mystery of why we sleep for a third of our lives is still alive.
Matthew Walker and why we sleep
Matthew Walker is a neuroscientist who has spent several years of his life studying sleep. He even has a book called Why We Sleep, in which he tries to sort out what is known on the subject. However, he does not stay alone in it, but also makes suggestive hypotheses about it.
Walker says that at first glance sleep is one of the most absurd phenomena in biology. In that state it is not possible to do something other than dreaming and the worst thing is that the sleeper is left in a state of great helplessness, up to a point.
Looking for a trace of how humans sleep, Walker found that there was a point where hominids stopped sleeping in trees. It suggests that this behavior could become a turning point in human evolution. What does evolution have to do with sleeping horizontally?
Changes in sleep, changes in the brain
Matthew Walker explains that many animals sleep in trees because this is much safer than on the ground. On the one hand, this protects them from nocturnal predators, who have a better chance of attacking if their prey is at ground level. On the other hand, insects can be a real attack against good sleep.
The conclusion he reaches is that the only thing that could allow sleep in a horizontal position was the invention of fire. This kept predators away and at the same time the smoke became an excellent antidote against bugs. Furthermore, when the man walked upright, he could no longer hang from the trees as before.
However, the fire, by itself, was not a factor that completely removed the dangers of the night. Thus, Walker believes that sleep had to become more efficient to avoid unpleasant surprises in the dark. In this way, and within the evolutionary process, the dream became shorter, but more intense. In this way, the sleeping cycles appeared.
REM sleep and intelligence
The REM phase corresponds to the deep sleep stages and, according to Matthew Walker, these only appeared when the hominid stopped sleeping in the trees. A deep dream in a tree entailed the risk of falling. When sleeping on the floor, this danger no longer existed and that is why the REM phase developed.
Everything indicates that having this new phase of deep sleep allowed the brain to establish new and multiple networks of connections. It became more complex and, with it, intelligence increased. It increased control over primitive emotions and also elevated creativity.
Higher intelligence and creativity are related to the REM phase of sleep. During it, there is a kind of reorganization of memories and a kind of brain cleansing. In this way, after sleeping, the brain is better able to find solutions, because it thinks better.
A person who sleeps properly is healthier and happier, but precisely what is seen in the world is a large increase in sleep disorders. It is also unclear how these are produced. In fact, the question of why we sleep still does not have a definitive answer, but if the body dedicates a third of its life to this activity, the reason, necessarily, is very relevant.
