Sleep, everyone needs it and it takes up enough time to be considered a second job, but it is very important to our health and mind. It seems to be an evolutional chink in our armor of productivity but is still vital to our basic health and intelligence.
Way back when humans where naked apes, still unknowing about how to create fire or any civilization remotely similar to what we have today; what where they supposed to do when the sun went down, stay up in the dark stumbling around fetching berries, trying to catch prey. Wasting energy in such a way would destroy them as food was sometimes scarce and the threat of imminent starvation was real. The energy conserved by sleeping, on the other hand, would vastly increase their productivity in their job as a hunter, forager, caretaker, etc. The saved energy could be spent more wisely as they could clearly see their surroundings, they could see predators as well, which would be hard when having trouble seeing the tree in front of you. Also some might argue, “Doesn’t sleep put them at a higher risk to get eaten by predators, since some hunt in the dark?” Yes, that is true, but some hunt during the day as well so there is no perfectly clear window where someone could sleep for 6-8 hours. But night would be the logical time to sleep, they are less productive at night due to the lack of light, so what else is there to do. Also hiding at night from even nocturnal predators would be easier then hiding in bright daylight. Although it played a significantly more important role before fire/electricity, sleep still serves as an important way to keep our bodies healthy and at the peak of their strength and intelligence.
When you sleep your body goes on the brink of shutting down; your muscles relax, your heartbeat and breathing slows, your higher brain function stops or slows significantly, and you receive no stimulation from the environment that is consciously realized. It’s reminiscent of shutting down a computer and then starting it again once you wake up. Only important information was saved as other less vital information was erased. You may have taken a slight mental note of small things yesterday, such as oh my car just got it’s 100,000th mile on it, or I need to eat at a specific restaurant tomorrow because I like it. If not reminded by the environment how many would instantly remember this information when they wakeup. Very few if any would remember that they had driven their car to it’s 100,000th mile until they looked at the dash and saw the mileage number. Sleep is like cleaning out all the extra stuff that is so insignificant to us that it is unimportant to remember in the long term. Therefore helping us, when we sleep, we throw those thoughts into the trash can where they need an environmental stimuli to uncrinkle the wadded paper of that specific thought or memory. Also sleep helps by reducing stress on your body, allowing it to recharge by processing and digesting foods while little immediate energy is needed, allowing most of it to be stored for use later in the following days.
Through these methods, although it is only immediately vital to our health in this technologically advanced age, it is an evolutionary reminder of our primitive past that helped us survive all that nature had to throw at us.
