Why Do Liveing things need sleep?

Question

So Im wondering
why do liveing things, more specifically humans need sleep?
I mean theres the obviouse the body gets tired or you need energy but what part of the body actually gets tired just your muscles that keep you up I mean the brain , heart, and eyes dont actually need sleep do they? It just seems wierd if you actually think about it more in depth I mean you would think it would be easier for a person to stay up for say 24 - 48 hours if they had a high sugar intake . What actually causes you to get tired just your muscles doing activities

Answer 1

it's probably not absolutely necessary in the same way that breathing oxygen is. more likely, since humans are most active in the day time where we have better eyesight, it's efficient to conserve energy at night. if we don't sleep it throws our body's rhythyms out of whack. the military has researched various wakefulness drugs and most of them can have some pretty nasty side effects. this is one of the milder ones:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil

Answer 2

Sleeping has always been one of those weird topics that we wonder why, if everyone does it, scientists still do not know very much about it. I think most of it has to do with the fact that it correlates so much with our brain, which is still a huge riddle to us.

However, it is known that the performance of the brain decreases when someone is deprived of sleep. This can be seen as less alertness and more irritability. Sleep is also thought to help memory process and rejuvenate the body.

My guess is that when one sleeps, the body no longer has to give energy to things like thinking and walking. Not only can the body conserve energy at this time, but heal wounds and sickness. By giving the energy we eat in food to our immune system instead of being conscious, we can heal quicker and that's why we're told to sleep when we're sick.

In fact, a third of our life is spent sleeping and most can't go without sleep for two or three days. Still, there are some that have survived long periods of time without sleeping at all. I read an article about a Vietnamese man that has gone three decades deprived of sleep after having a fever. That goes to show that there are exceptions and that nothing we know about the brain and sleeping is for certain.

Answer 3

As the brain learns throughout the day protein markers attach themselves to neurons. Each of these markers is associated with something that you experienced during the day. The protein markers will develop into dendrites, the long stringy parts of the neuron. (Each neuron can have as many as 6000 dendrites.)

Protein markers will fall off the neuron after extended periods, they will only evolve into dendrites while you sleep. Once the dendrite forms it is relatively permanent. As you repeat the experience for a particular dendrite it will become stronger.

If you do not sleep the protein markers will not become dendrites, you will not learn from your experiences. In short, your brain is what gets tired.

This is a general summary of part of the following seminar. Please conduct research for more specific answers.

Answer 4

Scientist and theologians have been un-in a position to respond to this question. yet you will think of that evolutionary pressures might have required that this dormant era (sleep) is an inferior trait via fact it leaves the critter in threat of attack. as quickly as back, evolution can not clarify this, and in certainty evolution might say that there would desire to have been a answer already. yet i might say God demands sleep, to stress better survival for communal behavior quite than remoted single only persons. in spite of everything you will desire to have somebody stand "on-shield" at evening mutually as you sleep.

Answer 5

Well some living things don't need sleep. As for the others, good question.

Answer 6

scientists are trying to figure this out as we speak (or type). however, they are pretty sure it serves a mental function, not just a physical one.