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I understand that lack of activity allows you to repair and recharge - but if you can't sleep, just lying still isn't good enough to stop you feeling tired, it seems that you have to be unconscious, i.e. MENTALLY inactive, in order to feel PHYSICALLY refreshed. Why?

2006-08-05 00:30:57 · 12 answers · asked by comradelouise 4 in Science & Mathematics Biology

12 answers

It is because your brain uses a lot of the energy your body has available. So when you sleep your brain basically switches into a low power mode allowing your body to effectively repair itself.

2006-08-05 00:35:40 · answer #1 · answered by neorapsta 4 · 3 1

When I was in Nursing School, this was a topic of discussion. Our instructor told us as long as you are laying down and quiet, you body will still re rejuvenate as if you were sleeping. It is the quiet, resting your body needs. Sleep is preferred of course, but you still have a body ready to go even though you brain tells you different. I have that problem, if I get 3 hrs sleep a night, I'm doing great. I wish someone could tell me how to get some sleep without drugs.

2006-08-05 07:46:15 · answer #2 · answered by Memere RN/BA 7 · 0 0

Many senior politicians learn how to 'power nap' in short spurts because most of them have late nights and early mornings to contend with. Rumours are that the Queen uses the same technique. It's like a state of deep meditation in which the brain becomes quiet so that it can be less fragmented and more focused. I don't know where to learn such a skill but I would love to find out!

2006-08-05 11:49:55 · answer #3 · answered by CC...x 5 · 0 0

I think most of us really don't stay inactive long enough without being asleep. I know it is very difficult for me to rest and relax for more than an hour or 2 without getting up and doing something. I get uncomfortable and tense and it kind of defeats the purpose. I think if you could enter some kind of meditation state for the entire night that it would work.

2006-08-05 07:52:22 · answer #4 · answered by Kuji 7 · 0 0

Studies have shown that REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep, the kind we have when we're dreaming) is necessary for people to wake up feeling refreshed.

Some people who study sleep think that, when you're dreaming, your mind processes the experiences you've had while waking. If you go too long without this processing, you feel drained.

One college student stayed awake for about 10 days without sleep during a study (at UCLA, perhaps?). At the end, he slept for about 14 hours and woke up feeling refreshed.

2006-08-05 08:47:10 · answer #5 · answered by Baxter 3 · 0 0

Actually just sleep isn't' even good enough, you have to experience REM sleep. They still aren't sure as to why, but they have shown that long-term potentiation (which is responsible for memory and learning) cannot occur without REM sleep cycles. In order to move short-term memory into long-term memory, we must experience REM sleep. If we do not get enough REM cycles, our brains will deteriorate. And there is not a definitive answer as to why yet.

2006-08-05 20:17:04 · answer #6 · answered by Stephanie S 6 · 0 0

that's a very good question...
I am in a job where sleep deprivation sessions take place quite more often
i like to think our brain is like fleshy membrane filled with a transparent liquid. our brain can function properly if the liquid stays transparent like the fishes in the aquarium, and as we go on about our days working and pressurising ourselves, various minute impurities or say ions starts dissolving in it gradually making it more like a dirty aquarium.
going to sleep is like cleaning the aquarium again. it clears our brain of all the minute impurities and makes it healthy. so i believe sitting and not doing anything doesnt help if you dont sleep at all.. sleep is most to remove those impurities or our brain.

2006-08-05 14:00:19 · answer #7 · answered by Kirati 2 · 0 0

Because your brain has to process out all the extra shite our eyes have filtered in during the day. Thus dreams.
Then you have to go into the really deep sleep in order for our bodies to regenerate at optimium levels, when nothing is going on - we think!

2006-08-05 07:37:14 · answer #8 · answered by zara c 4 · 0 0

anyhting that works needs to have break, example... if you run a motor it gets hot and wont work properly and it gets spoiled soon if you run the manchine like that, if you give a break for the machine to cool down it works well. same is in humans, sleep gives you relax physically and mentally.

2006-08-05 07:54:17 · answer #9 · answered by Chikky D 4 · 0 0

even if u lie still, ur body wudnt feel restful becoz the brain cells wud b functionin on various thots...when u fall asleep u r temporarily not aware of ur thots n surroundings...in other words ur body is in 'standby' mode....thus it gets refreshed....

2006-08-05 08:01:45 · answer #10 · answered by hidimba 2 · 0 0

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