Why We Sleep: An Underappreciated Mechanism

Why we Sleep: The Most Dangerous Game of Civilization

It is important to understand why we sleep. We often get caught up trying to optimize our lives by making small changes to our lifestyle. We adopt an exercise routine to improve our physiology and change our diet plan to maximize health benefits. However, together, these changes only make up two or three hours of the day. While these are important changes, they are not the most important lifestyle tweaks that you can make. So what change can make even more benefits to your health than these two titans? The answer is sleep. 

Let’s think about this logically. If we follow our biological rhythms, we spend one third of our lives sleeping. This behavior would not have evolved if it was unnecessary; in a predator-filled evolutionary environment, shutting down the body for a large portion of time makes no sense unless it was essential. That being said, what is the most neglected biological behavior in human civilization? Sleep.