Maybe the more interesting question here is the need for sleep at all. One theory is memory consolidation, where information and skills acquired during the waking day are organised by the brain into usable data. A bit like a file indexing service on most modern computer operating systems. The neural pathways to access that information are stabilised into long-term memory.
See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14744210?dopt=AbstractPlus I've also read about experiments done on rats proving that those allowed to sleep less than those with natural circadian rhythms died younger. There are some weird anomalies too. For example new-born dolphins may not sleep for the first few months of their lives, which asks all kinds of questions about sleep that we presume to be fairly well-established in mammals. Ian --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
