Sleep and Dreams

We can last about a week without water, and a month without food, but there's something we can't last more than a day with, and that is sleep. If we send 1/3 of our lives doing something, that something must be extremely important. But why is sleep so important, what happens while we sleep? Many theories have emerged in the past, but the one that presently stands states that our brain needs time to recharge the brain and shut down and repair neurons. Our brain is what controls everything in our body, and it works 24/7; it needs some time to rest and fix itself in preparation for a new day. Sleep is also important in order to grow, repair muscles, replace chemicals, give the cardiovascular system a break, and to drop metabolic rate. Another fascinating thing about sleep is dreaming. We dream every night, and a lot of our sleep time is done dreaming. It can cause us pleasure, it can cause us stress, it can scare us, surprise us, motivate us, and even give us ideas. Many of the technological developments created in history are due to dreams. The theory on dreams today states that our brain needs to organize the information received during the day and put it in our memory, so that is what dreams do. Another theory on dreams is that we dream all the time, day and night; the only difference is that during the day when we are awake, our dreams are controlled by stimulus that comes through our senses. There is another interesting detail about a type of dreams, nightmares. We dream of negative things like people we know and care for dying because it prepares us for when the actual thing happens, we will not be hit as hard by reality, because we experienced it in our dreams. In conclusion, sleeping and dreaming are of extreme importance, and we do them all the time. There are multiple theories of why we do them, but theories are theories and can be disproven. However, despite the reasons, sleeping and dreaming will always fascinate us.