During sleep, a person's interaction with the outside world slows down, and conscious mental activity is partially inhibited. It takes up about a third of our lives, but this time is not wasted. An RBC publication detailed its nature and significance.

Quality rest helps all the body's systems recover. Numerous studies have shown that chronic sleep deprivation significantly increases the risk of many diseases, including cardiovascular pathologies, diabetes, depression, and obesity.

Scientists from Johns Hopkins Institute have demonstrated in their work that sleep is no less important than food, reports Planet Today. When extremely tired, the body can shut down automatically and forcibly, even if a person is driving or in an important meeting.

Sleep was studied by scientists and doctors of antiquity. Later, physiologist Ivan Sechenov suggested that dreams are a reflex reaction of the brain, and Ivan Pavlov considered this phenomenon a protective inhibition of brain structures. Experiments by Maria Manaseina proved that sleep is even more important than food for survival: puppies without sleep died within a few days, but without food, yet with sleep, they lived much longer.

Many consider sleep to be passive rest, but scientists know it is an active state where the brain works intensively to restore the body. It conducts a special diagnosis and tuning of the entire body's functions.

Experts consider one of the key functions of sleep to be the cleansing of the brain from metabolic waste through the glymphatic system. This reduces the risk of neurodegenerative diseases. Also during this period, the restoration of genetic damage in nerve cells that accumulated during the day takes place.

A third important task is the activation of the immune system, which is why sleep is especially important during illnesses. Sleep also helps produce important hormones, including melatonin, growth hormone, and cortisol. At the same time, memory consolidation occurs: information is transferred from short-term storage to long-term storage.

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