If I were to ask you why you sleep, you might reply, “Because I get tired” or “I need to rest and recharge” or maybe even “Oh boy, sleep! That’s where I’m a viking!”
It seems like an obvious question. But reading a LiveScience article today about the sleep patterns of migrating thrushes, I learned that scientists don’t know the answer.
The need for sleep is nearly universal in the animal kingdom, but scientists still aren’t sure what purpose it serves. Some studies suggest we need sleep to organize the memories we amass during the day and to give our bodies time to rest, but both theories remain unproven.
Then in the New York Times Book Review today, in a review by Natalie Angier of D. T. Max’s The Family That Couldn’t Sleep, she writes:
If you stop sleeping altogether, you will suffer in ways you didn’t think possible, you will lose all bodily control and dignity, and you will finally, inexorably die a horrible death.
I figured there are many unsolved mysteries of the mind and body, but I didn’t know sleep was one of them. The word “nearly” in the first quoted paragraph above piqued my interest, too, and it may be inaccurate. I think most every animal has a state that could be referred to as sleep, although some can go for long spells without it. For instance, newborn dolphins don’t sleep for weeks.