After watching the TED talks video, I found the restoration sleep theory to be most convincing. As the speaker says in the video, essentially “stuff”, within the brain, gets used up during the day. Around that time we are awake and we actively use our brains to solve problems, interact with other people, comprehending signs and readings as well as expressing ones feelings or emotions. When the day ends, during the night is when people tend to sleep and that is when the brain restores itself as the speaker also mentions that the brain is restoring, and building back up what was lost during the day. Currently back in fashion a lot more of people will probably start to believe in this theory as well. To further support my argument the following two articles, which both support the restoration theory, will be discussed. In the first article the theory is drawn out even more as the author says that while sleeping NREM “is important for restoring physiological functions, while REM “is essential in restoring mental functions”. Moreover the article continues to list research studies that have provided evidence to this theory such as the idea that “the brain utilizes sleep to flush out waste toxins”. In the second article explains different things about the theory such as the growth hormones that only release into the body during sleep and adenosine, a by product that when built up drives a person to become sleepy and it is only emptied from the brain during sleep as well. Lastly I cannot be sure of how trustworthy these articles are however I do believe they are beneficial and not misleading. In conclusion I believe that the restoration theory is the reason sleep is most important in why we, as people, need sleep.
Works Cited
http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/p/TheoriesofSleep.htm
http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits-of-sleep/why-do-we-sleep
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This was a great post, even though I did a blog about the memory consolidation and memory processing idea, I can understand and agree with why you chose this one as most important or most essential. It is, indeed, very important that the body has the recovery period during sleep to basically “catch up” with everything it has been though on a daily basis. I also liked the part when the speaker mentioned how during sleep we are “building back what we lost during the day.” It’s probably a fairly complicated process summarized into a short and very understandable sentence, something readers and easily grasp. The first source you added on here seems to have gathered its references from other news articles and such, so I agree that it’s hard to determine the credibility of that particular article. Your second source, however, has data provided by the WGBH Educational Foundation, so I think it’s safe to say the facts you gathered from that site are fairly valid.
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