Why do we sleep? This question has puzzled scientists and researchers throughout the ages. What essential need does sleep fulfill for our bodies? If we search Google for answers, we will encounter various responses from different sources. Some say that sleep removes toxins from the brain, while others claim it helps repair and rejuvenate the body or that it is important for forming long-term memories.
However, researchers and scientists in physics and biology have presented the first direct evidence that may answer this question, according to the website "newatlas." Scientists from the University of Washington have recently proven that sleep resets the brain's "operating system," returning it to an optimal state for improved thinking and processing.
Keith Hening, the corresponding author of the study, stated that the brain is like a biological computer, noting that memory and experiences while awake gradually change the code, slowly shifting the brain's system away from its ideal state. He explained that the basic purpose of sleep is to restore this optimal computational state.
He emphasized that comparing the brain to a complex computer is not an exaggeration, as both use electrical signals to transfer information; long-term memory resembles a hard drive for storage and retrieval, and our neurons are similar to circuits.
Ralph Visel, another co-author of the study, mentioned that the entire system organizes itself into something extremely complex. The researchers conducted an experiment on mice based on the "criticality theory," observing the occurrence of neural cascades of all sizes in mice that had just woken up. During wakeful periods, the neural cascades shifted towards smaller and smaller sizes. The researchers found they could predict when the mice were about to sleep or wake up by tracking the distribution of neural cascades.
