Question: Why do we sleep?

Karen Reed answered on 18 Jun 2012:

hiay Meg,

another good question – one that lots of people are still trying to answer. There’s got to be a good reason to sleep otherwise we wouldn’t do it. For example, you might think that spending time asleep puts you at risk of being hunted and caught – and that’s a trait that would have been lots during evolution – so there’s got to be a good reason for spending some time unconcious.
It seems the biggest thing sleep does is it allows us to function really REALLY well when we’re awake. Its a time when the body can repair itself and its when our memories get hard-wired in.
Getting the right amout of sleep is important becuase continually not getting enough sleep in the long term increases your chances of getting depression and diseases like diabetes, heart problems and even cancer.
So we sleep because its good for us.
Hope that helps
🙂