The Purpose of Sleep? To Forget.

[Claire.]

The Purpose of Sleep? To Forget, Scientists Say

Over the years, scientists have come up with a lot of ideas about why we sleep.

Some have argued that it’s a way to save energy. Others have suggested that slumber provides an opportunity to clear away the brain’s cellular waste. Still others have proposed that sleep simply forces animals to lie still, letting them hide from predators. A pair of papers published on Thursday in the journal Science offer evidence for another notion: We sleep to forget some of the things we learn each day.

Read more: The New York Times

[Frank Merton]

2 minutes ago, Claire. said:

The Purpose of Sleep? To Forget, Scientists Say

Over the years, scientists have come up with a lot of ideas about why we sleep.

Some have argued that it’s a way to save energy. Others have suggested that slumber provides an opportunity to clear away the brain’s cellular waste. Still others have proposed that sleep simply forces animals to lie still, letting them hide from predators. A pair of papers published on Thursday in the journal Science offer evidence for another notion: We sleep to forget some of the things we learn each day.

Read more: The New York Times

Interesting; somewhere I read recently that a function of sleep is to help in the laying down of short-term memories into longer term, and that to ace out an exam the key is to review it the night before so it is now largely in long-term memory.

I have also read that one of the functions of sleep is to help our brain do the brain equivalent of a re-org.  That makes a lot of sense to me.  I think that dreams, in help us see things in perspective, have a role.

It is known that infants who have nothing to forget nevertheless dream, as do most mammals.

[.ZZ.]

I wish I could forget!

I'm a worrier, and I take it with me every night.

1) Are my daughter and her family safe?

2) Have I forgotten to pay any bills?

3) Why do we have cats when their litter box smells?

4) What is my wife going to throw in my face in the morning?

[papageorge1]

47 minutes ago, Claire. said:

The Purpose of Sleep? To Forget, Scientists Say

Over the years, scientists have come up with a lot of ideas about why we sleep.

Some have argued that it’s a way to save energy. Others have suggested that slumber provides an opportunity to clear away the brain’s cellular waste. Still others have proposed that sleep simply forces animals to lie still, letting them hide from predators. A pair of papers published on Thursday in the journal Science offer evidence for another notion: We sleep to forget some of the things we learn each day.

Read more: The New York Times

I have heard stuff like this before but I have never really heard why sleep is so absolutely physical energy regenerating. You would think that would be the number 1 important effect of sleep. I have heard before that science is not really sure why sleep is so important for this energy rejuvenation. Some sources like Theosophy and eastern/Vedic traditions tell us that the astral and physical bodies separate in sleep and also that prana/qi life energy in the atmosphere can be absorbed and rejuvenate the energy body at this time and that there are energy chakras in the body that get re-energized. This would seem to explain why sleep is so necessary to energy rejuvenation. However these things occur outside of our three-dimensional physical realm and body so are not visible to science. (which seems to be enough for e-crucifixion on this forum, but oh well)

 

Edited February 3, 2017 by papageorge1

[Frank Merton]

4 minutes ago, papageorge1 said:

I have heard stuff like this before but I have never really heard why sleep is so absolutely physical energy regenerating. You would think that would be the number 1 important effect of sleep. I have heard before that science is not really sure why sleep is so important for this energy rejuvenation. Some sources like Theosophy and eastern/Vedic traditions tell us that the astral and physical bodies separate in sleep and also that prana/qi life energy in the atmosphere can be absorbed and rejuvenate the energy body at this time and that there are energy chakras in the body that get re-energized. This would seem to explain why sleep is so necessary to energy rejuvenation.

 

I would guess there is a high probability there are parts of our body that can't rejuvenate in a few minutes but take hours.  Our heart, for example, can never stop to rest; instead it rests "in between" and no doubt gets even better rest when we are not moving during sleep.

They say as you get older you need less sleep; I seem to need more.

[aka CAT]

39 minutes ago, Frank Merton said:

Interesting; somewhere I read recently that a function of sleep is to help in the laying down of short-term memories into longer term, and that to ace out an exam the key is to review it the night before so it is now largely in long-term memory.

I have also read that one of the functions of sleep is to help our brain do the brain equivalent of a re-org.  That makes a lot of sense to me.  I think that dreams, in help us see things in perspective, have a role.

It is known that infants who have nothing to forget nevertheless dream, as do most mammals.

I know your second statement to be true since, as an amnesiac, only sleep let remember.

[Frank Merton]

47 minutes ago, .ZZ. said:

I wish I could forget!

I'm a worrier, and I take it with me every night.

1) Are my daughter and her family safe?

2) Have I forgotten to pay any bills?

3) Why do we have cats when their litter box smells?

4) What is my wife going to throw in my face in the morning?

Simplify your life. Put your bills on auto-pay, get some anti-smell cat litter, have a long talk with your wife about your stress.  I don't know why you should be particularly worried about the safety of your family -- I went through a war with almost nightly bombing and managed.

[papageorge1]

1 minute ago, Frank Merton said:

I would guess there is a high probability there are parts of our body that can't rejuvenate in a few minutes but take hours.  Our heart, for example, can never stop to rest; instead it rests "in between" and no doubt gets even better rest when we are not moving during sleep.

They say as you get older you need less sleep; I seem to need more.

I can understand that but to me it just doesn't seem to be a sufficient answer to why sleep versus just sitting still makes such a fantastic difference. There just seems to me like something important has not yet been discovered by science on the importance of sleep.

[Clarakore]

Maybe one of the purposes of sleep is to keep the body safe from the effects of sleep deprivation? Just look those up. Lots of harm comes from that.

[Timothy]

In a pure 'memory' sense: To purge the less important information, and to store the more important information.

Problem is, it's purely subjective. Many people purge a great deal of which they should be remembering, and remember a great deal of which they should be purging. (And vice versa of course)

[taniwha]

The main purpose of sleep is survival.

Without it the body and mind will quickly breakdown without the ability to recharge.

This has been a well known fact since day one.

[Eldorado]

There ain't no forgetting.

[cluey]

All i know is that sleep deprivation can be a very serious genetic disorder.....and has been proven to cause death in some cases quicker than lack of food or water.....

[paperdyer]

On ‎2‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 11:29 PM, Frank Merton said:

Simplify your life. Put your bills on auto-pay, get some anti-smell cat litter, have a long talk with your wife about your stress.  I don't know why you should be particularly worried about the safety of your family -- I went through a war with almost nightly bombing and managed.

Then he can work about whether or not his wife used all the money in the account before the back sent the payments.