Sleep On It

By Tori Figge

Sleep does not serve a single purpose. Your nightly rest turns out to affect your mind and health more than you suspect!

Just like hunger, thirst, and sexual desire, the urge to sleep is a physiological drive according to the Scientific American. Research over the past 20 years has provided an explanation for why we must sleep. The clearest finding states that sleep does not just serve a single purpose.

Sleep is needed for biological processes—immune system, hormonal balance, emotional and psychiatric health, learning, memory, and the clearance of toxins in the brain. Sleep enhances the performance of these systems and without it, sleeping deprivation impairs mental and physical health.