Some sleep news from the neuroscience world...

Some of the latest research about sleep has been conducted by Chiara Cirelli and Giulio Tononi of Wisconsin Center for Sleep and Consciousness.  These psychiatrists proposed a concept called "synaptic homeostasis hypothesis" or SHY.  This hypothesis holds that sleep is the way for the brain to reset during the night (called plasticity).  This is to enable us to keep learning new things. 
The synaptic junctions, between neurons, grow strong and large during the day, and then shrink up to 20% while we sleep.  This creates room for more growth and learning the next day. 
This process can help us to keep from getting sick and die.  It is well known that people and animals will have problems if there is no sleep. 
The researchers were able to "break the code" when they used an electron microscope to look at the brains of mice.  They were in separate teams.  They did not know if the tissue that they were examining were from the sleep deprived mice or the rested ones.
The research is continuing, these scientists are trying to find how how different brain areas are involved and also how the sleep plays into brain development.

LENS neurofeedback can help the quality of sleep to improve.  It is a good idea to keep those synaptic connections happy.