However, it is possible to consider another, fundamentally different, scenario. What if the brain, as all other visceral organs of an organism, does not need any special recuperative rest connected with total interruption of functionality? What if the brain, like a computer, can work efficiently for long periods of time, and observed “sensory isolation” of the brain during sleep just reflects switching over for processing of another flow of incoming information?
We should not forget that sleep-deprived animals die not because they become blind, deaf, have forgotten the ways to a food tray or because of serious problems with decision making. They die mainly because of multiple visceral disorders in virtually all life supporting systems, including the immune system (Rechtshaffen and Bergmann, 2002). At the same time, the brain appears to be the most resistant organ.
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Thus, the central nervous system during sleep might be involved in the process of visceral regulation.
That's a fascinating theory, I never realized the brain is never the primary cause of sleep-deprivation induced death. What sort of regulation do "visceral organs" like the immune system need that, if you don't sleep for long periods of time, they start to fail?
> We should not forget that sleep-deprived animals die [...] mainly because of multiple visceral disorders in virtually all life supporting systems
It is really disturbing to read clinical facts like this and realize that we know them because someone dedicated, at a minimum, several months to slowly torturing a bunch of animals to death.
Then you'll realize that all our knowledge about what is harmful and poisonous probably comes from families of poor random dudes who eaten something new and died in agony.
> Where's the necessity in this experiment? How many human lives were saved by "gosh I wonder how long I can keep a rat awake before it literally dies"?
Sleep deprivation happens among soldiers, workers, people with various diseases. Learning how it works and why exactly do we suffer from it could yield a lot of important and practical insights for medicine.
>How many human lives were saved by "gosh I wonder how long I can keep a rat awake before it literally dies"?
Following your logic, Nazis/Unit 731 did nothing wrong, because after war a lot of human lives were saved by them/thanks to them. If you don't understand why i bring them up in the first place, go read about them. Specifically on what happened to them after war. It may change your view on modern science.
Text after a blank line that is indented by two or more spaces is reproduced verbatim. (This is intended for code.)
Is this what you've done here? Because it makes the text annoying as buggery to read because of the horizontal scroll bar. The feature is intended to not line-break code.
I would contend that sleep is necessity for the processes of elimination.
Sleep is a metabolically minimal state. While we are awake metabolic activity is much higher, and our organs of elimination (kidneys, liver, bowels, skin, lungs) are under more load. We need to rest periodically to give these organs a chance to catch up.
We know now the brain even has a lymphatic channel, so for the brain sleep is, I suspect, a chance to enter an altered state of functioning to enable the lymphatic system a chance to do it's housecleaning.
This is the general 'disease model' that makes the most sense to me. That all disease has an elimination component to it, that the accumulation of the bodies own metabolic wastes contribute to the disease process, along with the 'bad' foods etc. Note I say component, because of course there's also a genetic component, as well as an environmental component, and the psycho-neuro-immunological component - that's the sciencey way of saying our thoughts affect our bodies.
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[ 70.5 ms ] story [ 828 ms ] threadIt is really disturbing to read clinical facts like this and realize that we know them because someone dedicated, at a minimum, several months to slowly torturing a bunch of animals to death.
How about years of slowly torturing a lot of humans to death then? (Unit 731, Nazis, etc.)
Experiments on animals are not pretty, but they are the least harmful way of moving science forward.
The only thing we can do is to make sure no animal have to die/suffer without real necessity and be grateful for their sacrifices.
Where's the necessity in this experiment? How many human lives were saved by "gosh I wonder how long I can keep a rat awake before it literally dies"?
And why did you lump me in with Nazis, again?
Sleep deprivation happens among soldiers, workers, people with various diseases. Learning how it works and why exactly do we suffer from it could yield a lot of important and practical insights for medicine.
Following your logic, Nazis/Unit 731 did nothing wrong, because after war a lot of human lives were saved by them/thanks to them. If you don't understand why i bring them up in the first place, go read about them. Specifically on what happened to them after war. It may change your view on modern science.
Uh, no, I was following your logic. You proposed the "real necessity" test. You can't turn it around and pretend that I said that first.
Text after a blank line that is indented by two or more spaces is reproduced verbatim. (This is intended for code.)
Is this what you've done here? Because it makes the text annoying as buggery to read because of the horizontal scroll bar. The feature is intended to not line-break code.
Better to use asterisks to italicized.
Sleep is a metabolically minimal state. While we are awake metabolic activity is much higher, and our organs of elimination (kidneys, liver, bowels, skin, lungs) are under more load. We need to rest periodically to give these organs a chance to catch up.
We know now the brain even has a lymphatic channel, so for the brain sleep is, I suspect, a chance to enter an altered state of functioning to enable the lymphatic system a chance to do it's housecleaning.
This is the general 'disease model' that makes the most sense to me. That all disease has an elimination component to it, that the accumulation of the bodies own metabolic wastes contribute to the disease process, along with the 'bad' foods etc. Note I say component, because of course there's also a genetic component, as well as an environmental component, and the psycho-neuro-immunological component - that's the sciencey way of saying our thoughts affect our bodies.
It also provides the causal connection between how your brain affects your body (e.g., via meditation) and vice versa (e.g., reflexology, acupuncture)