Viraj's Weblog

Awhile ago I stated that brain damage might possibly be similar to the process of building muscles. But in the sense that relaxation is recuperation for muscles, what would be recuperation from 'brain-building'? Sleep of course.

During a normal day, the brain is slightly damaged by the body's metabolism, and by free radicals. When one is asleep, the brain engages a repair center which slowly mends the tiny injuries, restoring the brain to its full potential. During the deepest phase of sleep, called REM, it is believed that the repair center itself is repaired. But the longer that sleep is prevented, the more damage one's brain accrues, and the more sleep one will require to repair it. Too much damage, and it becomes irreparable.
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The brain also uses sleep as a time to sort, process, and catalog all of the information it has absorbed throughout the waking period, which is why memory is adversely effected by lack of sleep. Creativity also suffers because the brain builds creative associations from memories while slumbering. As if that weren't enough, the immune system will be weakened by insufficient sleep.