"Sleep helps us recharge, but research suggests its impact is far larger than recharging our physical and mental batteries. According to Patrick McNamara PhD, Shelby Harris PsyD, DBSM, and Dave Asprey, sleep is imperative to restoring cells, regulating metabolism, consolidating memory, and synchronizing the body's internal clocks. REM in particular aided human cultural evolution, allowing our ancestors to make creative leaps by connecting disparate ideas."
"In the modern age, we've lost our reverence for the dream state. But REM sleep is what has made us special. More and more evidence is accumulating, which suggests that REM sleep was absolutely critical to the evolution of the special cognitive capacities that human beings evidence, and therefore critical to our cultural evolution and our special creativity. What REM sleep normally does is it creates this very high cholinergic environment in the brain,"
REM sleep facilitates cellular restoration, metabolic regulation, memory consolidation, and synchronization of internal biological clocks. REM produces a high cholinergic brain environment that promotes creative connections between otherwise disparate ideas. Increased access to REM in human ancestors supported cumulative cultural evolution by enabling novel associative thinking and creative leaps. REM occurs with bodily paralysis while the mind remains active, providing a restorative period that repairs cellular damage and strengthens cognitive functions. The combined physiological and cognitive effects of REM contribute to both individual health and broader cultural and intellectual development.
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