Why do we sleep?

[Eric Mintz]

In article <2lc1mj$89j at auggie.CCIT.Arizona.EDU> robertd at argon.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Robert Dejournett) writes:
>  I think you all are missing the key issue, i think that animals sleep 
>for evolutionary reassons; those with good day vision can't do much at night,
>so they 'shutdown', oposite for those nocternile things.  You notice that 
>sponges and clams and other 'lower' animals don't sleep.
>

Once again, the issue regarding why sleep evolved in the first place is
different from the question of why *we* sleep.  Regardless, there are many
animals (reptiles, amphibians, fishes) which show diurnal or nocturnal 
patterns of activity, yet these animals do not sleep.

Sleep is not the same thing as inactivity.

Eric
mintz at biology.ucsc.edu