Getting enough sleep is just as important your diet and physical activity, especially for our brains. Scientist haven’t quite been able to figure out exactly why we need sleep, but there are important functions and purposes that have been discovered. We know that during sleep our brains are hard at work preparing us for the next day, making it critical that we tuck in on time. So exactly is your brain up to? Check out these 5 amazing things your brain is doing as your snooze provided by The Huffington Post:
It’s making decisions: Your brain processes and prepares information as your sleep, making decision after decision. A recent study even found that our brains can accurate complete word association tasks and prepare from upcoming motor functions to select an answer, all while participants slept.
It’s boosting creativity: A sleeping mind is able to create connections between ideas that a waking mind may not have ever thought of. Researchers at the University of California found that their participants were 33% more likely to connected seemingly distant ideas after waking up from sleep during a 2007 study.
It’s creating and solidifying memories: While you are sleeping, your brain is making new memories, consolidating old memories and connecting those new memories to older ones, which is exactly why sleep is needed for better learning. Sleep allows us learn and retain new information so much faster than when we decide to pull an all-nighter.
It’s cleaning out toxins: Sleep gives the brain a chance to do much need housekeeping, flushing out toxic molecules that build up during the day. This may explain why a lack of sleep increases your chances for developing neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
It’s learning and remembering physical tasks: Your brain is transferring information into your long-term memories using sleep spindles, boosts of brain waves that occur during REM sleep. This process helps you remember motor task such as how to ride a bike, drive, dance and score goals at soccer.
Take care of your brain with sleep and allow it to take care of you, boosting your productivity, success, creativity and happiness!
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