Human sleep and recovery

[Bio-Hazard]

It's said that eight hours of sleep is usually a good idea if you want your body to recover mentally and physically, but I question, "Why do people have to sleep?"

Now, from what I understand, if people don't sleep their brain usually gets a bit fried and their body more fatigued. What happens during these eight hours of sleep though? What mechanism in the brain and body starts going away to work as someone sleeps?

What I'm trying to get at is, why can't people create some type of catalyst to speed up all the mind and body processes so they don't have to sleep?

From some people I've spoken to, they've taken illicit drugs and they in no way were fatigued on things such as methamphetamines. However, I do question their mental stability and cognitive processes for somewhat normal living.

[questor]

the body is not a perpetual motion machine. if you study the physiology of muscles, you find there are waste products built up as activity takes place. the muscles must return to homeostasis and the waste products must be removed or converted back to reusable energy. the brain needs the same thing. you may run overtime on caffeine or adrenaline for awhile, but then you must rest/sleep to get back to homeostasis.

[Drip Curl Magic]

I've been and insomniac for as long as I can remember, What I'm wondering is...why is it that the first 24 hours or so are the hardest to get though. I notice that after a couple days of no sleep, my body just kind of accepts the fact that I'm not sleeping... and then I feel less tired. Eventually, I do crash after a few days... but it's always hard to get to the sleeping state. What is it that causes this effect?

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Bio-Hazard

It's said that eight hours of sleep is usually a good idea if you want your body to recover mentally and physically, but I question, "Why do people have to sleep?"

___I don't see any great agreement in the literature about why we need sleep, but there is a lot of interesting work going on in the quest for such agreement.
___I recall a study wherein a person went deep into a cave to live for weeks. Without the daily Sun cycle to prompt the sleep cycle, an entirely different time cycle manifested. As I recall, the person settled into a 24 1/2 hour cycle which divided up into longer than "normal" work periods & sleep periods.
___Yesterday, I went into a very depressive & angry mood which worsened as the day went into night. I woke today to find (thankfully) that the bitter mood disapeared. I think there is a considerable difference between the benefits of sleep for the brain & the muscles. The brain doesn't turn off during sleep like muscles, in fact the brain "turns off" the muscles to prevent the body from acting on the dream images.
___To sleep, perchance to dream.

[HydrogenBond]

One possible explanation for sleep is connected to the brain's restoring its neurons. When we are awake the neurons fire at a higher rate. Although the neuron recover, the constant firing may alter branching processes to reflect a net lowering of neuron potential. One can see how behavior gets affected without sleep. With sleep the neurons are not firing as much and are able to regain potential via branching. When we awaken the next day, one begins the day with a more integrated brain.

[questor]

the body constantly performs the activities necessary to achieve homostasis.
restoration of electrical potential is one of these goals. sleep is necessary for all animal life to accomplish this. the central nervous system is responible for conscious activity and the parasympathetic nervous system carries on the
involuntary activities. you might wonder what is the underlying , base chemical instigator for these reactions and how are they propagated? this is the stuff of life itself!

[Greg]

i dont realy agree in speeding up all human Recovery and cell reproduction.. just leave the body to its work in the sleep... like all other animals, they sleep. and so should we.

[otcartsid]

don't you like sleep, bio-hazard? :P
I agree with Greg. Sleep is a natural part of life. I personally think it's wonderful

[Khan N. Singh]

melatonin is produced by the body while you sleep at night. you can see a great list of its effects ( it is considered a 'master hormone', produced by the pineal gland) at wikipedia.

[otcartsid]

Today I learned a bit about sleep inertia (that "morning" grogginess people get which may last from 10 mins to 2 hours!). I found it so interesting that how bad this "drunkenness" is depends on when in your sleep cycle you wake up.

When awoken from deep sleep, the sleeper feels groggy, tired and sometimes irritable. However, if someone wakes up from a lighter stage of sleep, they will feel more recharged, invigorated, energetic, and alert.

Furthermore it turns out coffee doesnt give you a jolt! The sleep inertia will go away by itself in the same amount of the time that it takes for the caffeine to "kick in"