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
Like a lot of others mentioned, while you sleep your body goes into recovery mode. Specifically, a lot of toxins that are created as a byproduct during the day are removed. However, it’s more than just that. Sleep is also heavily involved in memory consolidation. During sleep, your brain decides which memories to store for the long term and filters out “useless memories.” Additionally, a lot of different hormones are released while you are sleeping which for some reason the body doesn’t release while awake. I think there’s a growth factor hormone or something but I don’t remember the details.
There are a lot of different functions that occur while you sleep and we are just figuring them out. But I would say the main functions are clearing waste and consolidating memories.
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