Bats, birds, box turtles, humans and many other animals share at least one thing in common: They sleep. Humans, in fact, spend roughly one-third of their lives asleep, but sleep researchers still don’t know why.
According to the journal Science, the function of sleep is one of the 125 greatest unsolved mysteries in science. Theories range from brain “maintenance” — including memory consolidation and pruning — to reversing damage from oxidative stress suffered while awake, to promoting longevity. None of these theories are well established, and many are mutually exclusive.
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Tributyltin, a ubiquitous pollutant that has a potent effect on gene activity, could be promoting obesity, according to an article in the December issue of BioScience. The chemical is used in antifouling paints for boats, as a wood and textile preservative, and as a pesticide on high-value food crops, among many other applications.
Affecting sensitive receptors in the cells of animals, from water fleas to humans, tributyltin can, at very low concentrations — a thousand times lower than pollutants that are known to interfere with sexual development of wildlife species.
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Is sleep essential? Ask that question to a sleep-deprived new parent or a student who has just pulled an “all-nighter,” and the answer will be a grouchy, “Of course!”
But to a sleep scientist, the question of what constitutes sleep is so complex that scientists are still trying to define the essential function of something we do every night.
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Loss of sleep, even for a few short hours during the night, can prompt one’s immune system to turn against healthy tissue and organs.
A new article in the September 15, 2008 issue of Biological Psychiatry, by the UCLA Cousins Center research team, reports that losing sleep for even part of one night can trigger the key cellular pathway that produces tissue-damaging inflammation. The findings suggest a good night’s sleep can ease the risk of both heart disease and autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis.
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Humans spend about a third of our lives sleeping. Over the course of an average 70–year lifespan, that equates to about 205,000 hours.Sleep is vital in everyone’s life.
Why is it so important? Our health, happiness, and ability to succeed in life are strongly dependent on how well we meet the body’s need for rest and quality sleep. Sleep is a naturally occurring period in every 24-hour period of a human’s life, in fact. It’s during the sleep phase of our daily cycle that the body repairs itself, tests its systems, consolidates memory, purges itself of waste, and stockpiles energy for the day ahead.
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