"The 'average' human sleeps about 8 hours every day. That's one third of your life! In other words, you sleep for about 122 days every year. A 75 year old person would have spent a total of about 25 years asleep." "Sleep may have developed because of a need of animals to protect themselves. For example, some animals search for food and water during the day because it is easier to see when the sun is out. When it is dark, it is best for these animals to save energy, avoid getting eaten, and avoid falling off a cliff that they cannot see. It is interesting to note which animals sleep the most and which sleep the least [http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chasleep.html]. In general, animals that serve as food for other animals sleep the least." http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/sleep.html i'm notoriously bad for wanting to do nothing but sleep when i'm tired, but sometimes i think about trying to not sleep as much. i want to experience as much as i can in my one life. i'm a big believer in evolution and i also believe that not everything is how it seems at first glance. IF this really is one major reason why we sleep, i really might try not to sleep as much. on average, if you cut your sleep in half from 8 to 4 hours a day, by age 75, you would have experienced 12.5 more years of "life" than someone sleeping 8 hours a day. i actually could probably fight my sleepiness if i knew sleep was a evolutionary device to protect me. THINK ABOUT IT, IF SLEEPING KEPT CAVE MEN OUT OF TROUBLE, THE SLEEPIEST ONES WILL SURVIVE BEST. THEN WE EVENTUALLY END UP SLEEPY HUMANS, BUT NOW, MODERN MAN DOESN'T NEED ALL THIS SLEEP/PROTECTION (MAYBE)!
from this link (http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chasleep.html), we can see what % of day humans sleep at different ages: Human (infant) 66.7% 16 hr Human (adult) 33.3% 8 hr Human (elderly) 22.9% 5.5 hr according to the theory in my previous post, these numbers make sense. a infant human sleeps twice as much as an adult. WHAT CAN A BABY DO? ALMOST NOTHING!!!! a cave man baby was probably better off sleeping all the time than crawling around in the woods. the ones that slept the most survived. as humans age, they become more aware of their surroundings and can learn how to stay alive while not sleeping. as they mature, they also become more physically developed, which lets them survive more animal attacks. so basically, as a human becomes wiser and more physically developed, they don't need as much sleep to stay alive. i'm not saying this is the case, but it certainly makes me think about it!
here's one more thing to think about... why is sex so good? obviously because it is enjoyable, so animals want to do it, and then they reproduce. why is it so hard to stay awake when you're tired? obviously because your body wants you to sleep. for some reason it benefits you to sleep, so it is PURPOSELY hard for you to stay awake when your body wants to sleep. now say according to the theory in my previous posts, sleep came about through evolution as a protective device. the animals who succumb to sleep the easiest are the best evolved, since sleep benefits them. if sleep does indeed benefit them, animals that don't fall asleep when they should are at a disadvantage. so basically, not being able to fight your sleepiness is a good thing. we are still basically cave men. we didn't evolve to live in houses. we could have evolved to succumb to sleep easy, but now maybe we just don't need these things. again, i'm not claiming this to be true, but just think about it.
i thought of something else that is interesting... night/darkness and day/brightness obviously play a role here. some animals are nocturnal and are active at night and sleep during the day. if the amount of brightness due to the sun doesn't matter to the animal when it sleeps, animals would not have sleeping patterns. if brightness didn't matter to a bat, they all wouldn't be sleeping during the day. what i'm getting at is, if sleep is not about protection and is more about repairing the brain or something, then why is the amount of light determining when an animal sleeps?? it must somehow BENEFIT a bat to sleep during the day. KEEPING IT OUT OF TROUBLE IN DAYLIGHT is beneficial to this animal. does a bat's brain/body really need to sleep 82.9% of a day so that it can repair itself!?!?! or is it sleeping all day because it benefits the animal to STAY ALIVE?!?! evolution does not THINK. surviving is all that matters. we think it's crazy for a bat to waste 82.9% of its days sleeping, but evolution did not care about "wasting" life. all evolution cared about was keeping the animal ALIVE. evolution did not care if a human sleeps 1/3 of its life in order to survive. it did not care if it seems like it's a waste of a lot of time. if that's how humans survived best, then that's what evolution did. we THINK, evolution does NOT.
Thomas Edison, the famous inventor, thought that sleep was a waste of time. He is reported to have said, "Sleep is an acquired habit. Cells don't sleep. Fish swim in the water all night. Even a horse doesn't sleep. A man doesn't need any sleep." Isaac Asimov, the science fiction writer, also did not like sleep. He said, "I never use an alarm clock. I can hardly wait until five a.m. In the army I always woke before reveille. I hate sleeping. It wastes time." http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/sleep.html
if it is ever determined that we don't NEED sleep anymore, i predict we will edit our DNA and either eliminate sleep/sleepiness, or greatly reduce our natural sleeping durations.
i read that the conscious mind sleeps, but the subconscious mind never sleeps. if our brain needs to rest to be repaired or whatever, why doesn't the subconscious mind sleep, too? does that part not need sleep to be repaired?! if not, why? that seems odd. according to the theory i've mentioned previously, maybe just the conscious mind shuts off so that we don't do anything. our conscious mind controls our thinking and what we do. if it gets shut off, then it allows us to stay still and do nothing (sleep). if sleep is beneficial to survival, shutting off our conscious mind would be a good way to keep us out of trouble.
My dreams are much more exciting than my real life. I like to sleep as much as possible. Where else do you get to sleep with the girl of your dreams? Where else do you get to hit a home run, score a goal, kick the winning field goal for your favorite team? Where else do you get to fly a fighter jet? Sleep....bring it on.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I feel guilty when I sleep too long. I don't want to voluntarily spend too much time in the unconscious state. Soon you will have no choice, soon will shall all be DEAD