Outline and evaluate the functions of sleep

Outline and evaluate the functions of sleep

Sleep must be adaptive in some form. All animals do it despite substantial costs because it either provides some vital biological function or because it provides some other benefit.

Mammals need to use a lot of energy in order to maintain a constant body temperature. This can cause a lot of problems in smaller animals who have higher metabolisms. This means that they use even more energy so that they can do tasks. When thinking of energy conservations there is important distinction between non rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. It seems that NREM has been evolved for energy consumption. They is supported by Allison and Cicchetti who found that larger animals have less NREM but not less REM.

The time we sleep can be constrained by particular eating requirements. Animals have to spend…