Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

REM sleep brain activity is an almost perfect replica of that seen during attentive, alert wakefulness—the top line in the figure. Indeed, recent MRI scanning studies have found that there are individual parts of the brain that are up to 30 percent more active during REM sleep than when we are awake!

Each night, the long-range brainwaves of deep sleep will move memory packets (recent experiences) from a short-term storage site, which is fragile, to a more permanent, and thus safer, long-term storage location.

But did reading on the iPad actually change sleep quantity/quality above and beyond the timing of melatonin? It did, in three concerning ways. First, individuals lost significant amounts of REM sleep following iPad reading. Second, the research subjects felt less rested and sleepier throughout the day following iPad use at night. Third was a linger

His findings helped explain why rationality is one of the last things to flourish in teenagers, as it is the last brain territory to receive sleep’s maturational treatment. Certainly sleep is not the only factor in the ripening of the brain, but it appears to be a significant one that paves the way to mature thinking and reasoning ability. Feinberg

With a full night of plentiful sleep, we have a balanced mix between our emotional gas pedal (amygdala) and brake (prefrontal cortex). Without sleep, however, the strong coupling between these two brain regions is lost. We cannot rein in our atavistic impulses—too much emotional gas pedal (amygdala) and not enough regulatory brake (prefrontal corte

It was as though, without sleep, our brain reverts to a primitive pattern of uncontrolled reactivity.