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Thursday, June 17, 2010

Why Sleep Evolved

Most animals experience sleep-like states. Many sentient animals have probably wondered why. I haven't researched the subject, but I think I would have been aware of it if someone had already discovered a definitive explanation. So, based on purely speculative reasoning, I will venture an explanation.

At the dawn of the emergence of multicellular animals, the ongoing war between such host organisms and parasitic microbes has been waged to a fluctuating degree about some equilibrium standoff. There has never been a cease fire in this everlasting warfare, though its complexity has been evolving with the advent of some measure of symbiosis.

I think that the primary reason for sleep is to give the host organism a recurring life-saving phase during which the host marshals its immune-system forces and allocates maximum discretionary energy to battling its resident parasites.

Or not.

Post #1,318 Why Sleep Evolved

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