I came across this article on a newsgroup about the mechanics and benefits of sleep…it’s really fascinating. Some highlights:
Just about everyone does better with 8 hours of sleep. Statistically you live longer, make fewer mistakes, and have healthier immune systems.
Thinking about doing an all-nighter to cram for that exam? If it’s a simple “recall the facts” test, the all-nighter will help. If you have to do any kind of critical thinking, though, the sleep deprivation will do a number on you.
Sleep seems to improve motor skills. Learn something in the evening, sleep on it, and you’ll do better the next day.
There’s also an interesting description of the mechanisms of sleep, and how caffeine plays a role in disrupting that mechanism. I found the discussion on circadian rhythms particularly interesting. They’re periodic cycles in our body that, evolutionarily speaking, are possibly older than sleep. The idea that our body is running on a bunch of different periodic cycles is immensely cool and perhaps hackable :-)
