Eli5: Why do we need to sleep so much, what happens in the body when asleep that cannot happen while normal resting or relaxing? Or is it just for the brain?

Question

Eli5: Why do we need to sleep so much, what happens in the body when asleep that cannot happen while normal resting or relaxing? Or is it just for the brain?

In: Biology

Answer 1

In the book why we sleep the author writes that we sleep because during sleep the brain flushes out metabolites. Essentially cleaning the brain. During sleep the brain also moves memories from short term memory to long memory