This Is the Real Reason We Need Sleep [View all]

[Jilly_in_VA]

Humans spend a third of their lives curled up in bed, and scientists have no idea why. The theories for why animals sleep range from energy conservation, to helping our brains store memories and new information, to being an evolved behavior that keeps us from venturing out into the dangerous night. Scientists have never been able to pinpoint which of these theories, or any others, are really the case.

Turns out there might be a much smaller but no less crucial reason why living critters like us need to hit the hay every day. In new findings published in the journal Molecular Cell, researchers from Israel’s Bar-Ilan University think the main reason we evolved to sleep was that it activates the systems within our body that repair damaged and broken DNA.

DNA in our cells accumulate damage due to UV light, radiation, increased physical and biochemical stress, and even just simple errors our body makes. Our body has repair systems to repair these cracks and flaws in the DNA in our cells, but these repair systems function much more effectively during sleep hours than wakeful ones, presumably because the body can devote more resources to repair.

This is especially true for DNA in our neurons—the most fundamental part of our brains. “During wakefulness, neurons are busy with so many different things,” study co-author Lior Appelbaum told The Daily Beast. The new study demonstrates that the longer you stay awake, the more damage is inflicted on your neuronal DNA, at a rate that’s faster than what your repair systems can accomplish. If your repair systems aren’t allowed to function at optimal settings, the damage can reach dangerous levels that can temporarily or even permanently harm the brain.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/we-need-sleep-because-it-helps-repair-dna-damage-in-brain-cells-new-study-finds?ref=home