The mystery of the need for sleeping, puzzling scientists for decades, is possible, finally, solved. A group of researchers studying the brain of rats assumed that the dream “restarts” the operating system of the brain, supporting the optimized state of work, known in computer science and physics as “criticality”.
According to researchers, this condition is so important that its absence for a long time can lead to serious health consequences, up to death. Kit Hengen, assistant professor of biology at the University of Washington in St. Louis, emphasizes The critical importance of sleep, indicating that you can die without it.
Despite the common theories that sleep replenishes some unknown chemicals necessary for normal brain functioning, scientists could not identify these substances. However, a new study uniting physics and biology may offer an answer.
The concept of criticality in physics describes a complex system on the verge between order and chaos. Researchers Hengen and his colleague, professor of physics Ralph Wessel, suggested that daily activity during wakefulness leads the brain from a state of criticality, and sleep is necessary to restore this state, similarly to rebooting the computer.
Their hypothesis was confirmed during observations of the electrical activity of the neurons of rats. It turned out that the brain reaches the highest degree of criticality immediately after a restorative sleep and gradually leaves it with every hour of wakefulness. The effects of wakefulness on criticality are so significant that researchers could predict when rats fall asleep based on reduced criticality.
According to Hengen, each moment of wakefulness leads the corresponding brain chains from criticality, and sleep helps the brain to dump. However, the study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience is still carried out on rats only, so the results may not completely correspond to the human brain. However, scientists are sure that they are on the right path.