The Mind After Midnight: Where Do You Go When You Go to Sleep
We spend a third of our lives asleep. Every organism on Earthfrom rats to dolphins to fruit flies to microorganismsrelies on sleep for its survival, yet science is still wrestling with a fundamental question: Why does sleep exist During Shakespeare and Cervantes time, sleep was likened to death, with body and mind falling into a deep stillness before resurrecting each new day. In reality, sleep is a flurry of action. Trillions of neurons light up. The endocrine system kicks into overdrive. The bloodstream is flooded with a potent cocktail of critically vital hormones. Such vibrant activity begs the question: Where do we go when we go to sleep Based on new sleep research, there are tantalizing signposts. We delved into the oneeyed, halfbrained sleep of some animals; eavesdropped on dreams to understand their cognitive significance; and investigated extreme and bizarre sleeping behaviors like sleep sex and sleep violence. The World Science Festival gathers great minds in science and the arts to prod
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