Sleep Persuasive Essay

Now the question here today is why do we sleep. While this might seem to be a simple question to answer for most there are actually quit a few theories that have been developed and question as far back as the Greek philosophers, to explain why humans need to sleep in order to survive. First lets start off with that sleep means. The definition of sleep, according to the Cambridge English Dictionary is the resting state in which the body is not active and the mind is unconscious. Now, having the definition does not give the specific reason in which humans sleep One of the more common theories in which humans sleep is described as the repair and restoration theory which sates that the reason humans need sleep is so their mind
and body can revitalize and restore all of the physiological processes. The repair and restore theory describes that the NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep, is important for the physiological functions, while REM (rapid eye movements) sleep is responsible for all of the mental functions restoring during the sleep process. During the process of sleep, the cell division rate and the protein synthesis in the human body increases, supporting the theory that there are acts of repairing and restoring occurring during the periods in which the body is sleeping. Researches have recently discovered new evidence that continues to support this theory of repairing and restoring. In an October 2013 issue of the journal science results of the study stated that the brain takes oadvangted of the body sleeping by flushing out waste toxins that are stored in the body and the mind. "The restorative function of sleep may be a consequence of the enhanced removal of potentially neurotoxic waste products that accumulate in the awake central nervous system," the study's authors explained. The author supports the theory by stating that without the process of sleeping the toxins would never have the opportunity to release themselves. Dr. Maiken Nedergaad states that without this release process there are an abundance of negatives that could occur to a person. For instance when he explained that “ They also suggest that problems with cleaning out this brain waste might play a role in a number of brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease”. Now on the other hand there is the popular theory that humans need sleep because of evolution, also considered the adaptive sleep theory.
The basic means of this theory suggests that humans need sleep in order to conserve energy. This theory also suggests that humans sleep when being awake could be hazardous to not only themselves but also to others around them. Researches have supported this theory through different species of animals. On one hand they used animals that don’t have an abundance of natural predators such as lions and bears, who sleep on an average of 12 hours each day. While on the other hand there are the animals who have many natural predators who do not sleep nearly as much, with an average of 5 hours of sleep each day. This is basically stating that humans sleep in order to build and conserve energy to when we actually need it to function, work, or in the case of animals to fight in order to survive. Now when looking at both of these theories there are obviously some similarities as well as some differences. Looking at the differences is considerably easier to depict because the first theory discussed suggests that humans sleep in order to restore and repair things in the body as well as the brain, while the second theory explains that humans need sleep due to the evolution that humans have gone through, as well as conserving energy to when we actually need it the
most.