Sleep deprivation is bad for your brain. We don’t know exactly why, though we do know that the brain appears to carry out some repair and maintenance during sleep, and also that rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep is involved in dreams and memory processing.
Lack of sleep can lead to bad moods and trouble concentrating, and has also been tentatively implicated in a range of bodily ailments including diabetes, stunted growth, and even obesity.
So how much sleep does a person need, and what’s the best way to go about getting it? Science has some ideas, as this video from Tech Insider shows.
Originally published by Cosmos as How much sleep do you need?
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