
What Happens While Your Brain Sleeps is Like How Computers Stay Sane - aespinoza
http://highscalability.com/blog/2013/12/23/what-happens-while-your-brain-sleeps-is-surprisingly-like-ho.html
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espeed
Sleep also plays a part in synaptic conditioning -- it's when the brain prunes
itself by separating signal from noise...

"Sleep researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine
and Public Health believe it is more evidence for their theory of 'synaptic
homeostasis.' This is the idea that synapses grow stronger when we're awake as
we learn and adapt to an ever-changing the environment, that sleep refreshes
the brain by bringing synapses back to a lower level of strength. This is
important because larger synapses consume a lot of energy, occupy more space
and require more supplies, including the proteins examined in this study."

"Sleep — by allowing synaptic downscaling — saves energy, space and material,
and clears away unnecessary 'noise' from the previous day, the researchers
believe. The fresh brain is then ready to learn again in the morning"
([http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090402143455.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090402143455.htm)).

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dijit
these two things are not comparable- computers tend to reboot due to 'cosmic
rays', cruft left behind by poorly written applications, or, more commonly,
nvidia drivers.

my brain goes down to sleep at night to commit and file my memories of the
day, for area's to be selectively cleaned, for the brain and body in general
to consume less energy and last longer/heal.

I can't hit a reboot button, it's not defrag- it's a complicated required
process for living in a human skin.

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thatthatis
A simple and compelling reason to meditate is that it can function like a
reboot button for your brain. Moreso, in my experience, than sleep.

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drzaiusapelord
Sorry, but 10-15 minutes of napping is nothing like what meditation can
deliver, even at 3 to 5 times the time invested.

Sleep does so many positive things its hard to fully understand how great it
is for us.

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thatthatis
What are you sorry about? Nothing you've said directly or indirectly
contradicts what I said as far as I can tell.

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drzaiusapelord
My point is that its incredibly inefficient and bringing it up in an article
about sleep seems like typical New Age evangelism to me. While there are
certainly some benefits to it, its nothing like taking a nap.

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bananacurve
>And you may have noticed now that your iPhone supports background processing
it reboots a lot more often?

Are phones spontaneously rebooting?

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dsirijus
Well, when you stretch a metaphore this far, you have to lie some.

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greenbee
> Without access to spinal fluid or nicely chunked pieces of garbage like
> molecules

I would be really worried if I started clearing nicely chunked pieces of
garbage like things in my sleep.

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X4
The whole article is flawed.

