• Question: why do we need to sleep

    Asked by Benny to Pip, Ajay, Kate, Kuntal, Reka on 14 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by star1416, Vithu2005, hannah.
    • Photo: Pip Millington

      Pip Millington answered on 14 Nov 2016:

      If I could answer that question definiteively I’d be a much more famous scientist than I am! 😛

      Nobody knows for sure, but it seems to be important for repair and regeneration of damage to the body and for our brains to consolidate new memories and get rid of spurious connections which aren’t useful.

      What we have seen is that people who sleep less than they should seem to have poorer health and might not live quite as long, although the mechanism behind this is poorly understood.

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