Pillow talk: Get smart about sleep
To sleep is a treasure experienced in some unique form by all animals. Some bird species nap while gliding, nurse sharks sleep in a pile on the ocean floor, dolphins sleep with one brain hemisphere at a time while continuously swimming, and us humans get horizontal in comfy beds. No evolutionary mistake, sleep enriches a diversity of functions, including our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions. Sleeping improves the immune system, reforms the body’s metabolic state by fine-tuning the balance of insulin and circulating glucose, regulates our appetite, and contributes to a healthy cardiovascular system and microbiome.