As stated in a Harvard article, scientist have come up with four famous theories about why humans sleep, and not all are agreed upon if they are accurate. The first theory goes back to the evolutionary stance, and is called the inactivity theory. This goes back to when it was dark, and humans wanted to stay out of harm’s way, thus going to sleep allows them to stay have. Many people have countered this argument with the fact that you would be much safer being conscious, and being aware of your threats. Thus, making this one of the lesser accepted theories about why we sleep. The second theory scientist came up with is also related to evolution and is called the energy conservation theory. They believed that the primary reason humans slept was to conserve energy, especially during the times when it was hardest to find food. It was proven that while sleeping, your energy demand decreases, which made many people believe that this theory was correct. Then came the restorative theory, which changed the outlook on why people believed humans slept. Many people now believe that sleep allows the body to rejuvenate itself, and fix things that are not working correctly. There has been many studies done on this theory, which keep giving it more validity. The most recent theory that people are starting to believe is the brain plasticity theory, which states that sleep plays a key role in developing infant/kids brains, and also allowing adults to perform tasks at an efficient rate. By combining parts of these theories, one can start to understand that humans sleep due to the positive effects it has on all the processes that go on in the human
As stated in a Harvard article, scientist have come up with four famous theories about why humans sleep, and not all are agreed upon if they are accurate. The first theory goes back to the evolutionary stance, and is called the inactivity theory. This goes back to when it was dark, and humans wanted to stay out of harm’s way, thus going to sleep allows them to stay have. Many people have countered this argument with the fact that you would be much safer being conscious, and being aware of your threats. Thus, making this one of the lesser accepted theories about why we sleep. The second theory scientist came up with is also related to evolution and is called the energy conservation theory. They believed that the primary reason humans slept was to conserve energy, especially during the times when it was hardest to find food. It was proven that while sleeping, your energy demand decreases, which made many people believe that this theory was correct. Then came the restorative theory, which changed the outlook on why people believed humans slept. Many people now believe that sleep allows the body to rejuvenate itself, and fix things that are not working correctly. There has been many studies done on this theory, which keep giving it more validity. The most recent theory that people are starting to believe is the brain plasticity theory, which states that sleep plays a key role in developing infant/kids brains, and also allowing adults to perform tasks at an efficient rate. By combining parts of these theories, one can start to understand that humans sleep due to the positive effects it has on all the processes that go on in the human