preview

Argumentative Essay On Why Were You Later

Decent Essays

“Why did you sleep in so late?” A question everyone has been asked and then abruptly replied with “I guess I was just tired.” But why were you tired? Well to be completely honest we don’t know for sure. But we do have theories on why we may sleep, including the: Inactivity Theory, Energy Conservation Theory, Restorative Theories, and the Brain Plasticity Theory. These theories are still very controversial for most scientists. Even though we don't know why, we do know it’s necessary to survive since its reflexive and it enables us able to function. The Inactivity Theory is one of the earliest theories on why we may sleep, it suggests that you sleep at night to keep you out of harm’s way from predators. It gives us an advantage to save energy …show more content…

Tests performed on these theories show that animals deprived from sleep suffer from a loss of all their immune system functions and inevitably die from this in only a few weeks’ time. Studies show that muscle growth, tissue repair, protein synthesis, and growth hormones are most active while you sleep, and even a few are only active while you sleep. While we are conscious and awake our brain produces a chemical called adenosine, this chemical is thought to be the cause of why we feel tired at times and feel the need to sleep, this chemical is countered by caffeine. That explains why you feel more awake and alert after drinking that cup of Joe. Caffeine actually blocks the receptors for adenosine making that feeling of being tired and not alert diminish. While you sleep it gives the body a chance to clear the adenosine from the system, in turn making you feel “refreshed” and not tired when you wake up from your slumber. The Brain Plasticity Theory is one of the most recent theories on why we sleep. According to this theory sleep is directly related to the changes in the structure, and organization of the brain. This process is known as brain plasticity. At one point researchers thought that brain plasticity stopped after the childhood stage in life. The effects of this process is it reshapes your brain and moves information from damaged parts of your brain to new, undamaged

Get Access