I’m not sure if anyone actually knows the full answer for this question, but are there any widely excepted theories about what sleep does?
In: Biology
There are two different questions. Why do we sleep and why does sleep make us less tired.
While we are awake our body produces a specific chemical. It measures that chemical to determine how long we have been awake. Our body makes us sleepy based on how much of that chemical is in our body. When we sleep that chemical breaks down. When we wake up we have less of that chemical so our body does not make us sleepy.
Caffeine makes it so our body does not detect that chemical. So caffeine tricks our body into thinking we just woke up.
The chemical is only used as a timer. Our body does not need it for anything else. It is just used to make sure we sleep regularly.
Why we need to sleep regularly is unknown.
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