Question: What happens to your brain when you are sleeping?

Helen O'Connor answered on 24 Jun 2011:

There is more about sleep at this question http://ias.im/48.1289 and dreams here http://ias.im/48.103

Sleep is essential to help us be able to think, speak, and remember and is vital for our brain’s development. So in a way its better to think about what would happen to our brains if we didn’t sleep.

Without sleep our brains really stop functioning well – even after just one night of no sleep (like from a party or an overnight flight) it becomes more difficult to concentrate. If that continued for a few more nights, eventually the part of the brain that controls language and memory starts to shut down. What also happens without sleep is that you lose the ability to think and react quickly – especially in high pressure situations. This could be really dangerous if you were a pilot or an air traffic controller.

Withouth sleep you will also start to see your emotional and physical health get worse too. This includes increasing your chances of becoming obese, because the chemicals and hormones that help you control your appetite are released during sleep – without these, you would probably feel hungrier and eat a lot more. You will feel depressed and will not be able to cope with even simple things.