Do you ever wish you had more hours in your day? You could play games, read books, or talk with friends all night without feeling tired.
Scientists know that our bodies need rest to stay healthy and strong. When you fall asleep, your brain does important work behind the scenes. It cleans away waste, saves your memory from school, and fixes small injuries in your muscles. If you try to stay awake forever, strange things start to happen to your body. Without sleep, your mood changes quickly, you cannot focus, and you start to feel sick. To make a person live without sleeping, doctors would have to completely change how our organs work. They would need to build a new way for the brain to wash itself while you are active. You would also need an endless energy supply to keep moving day and night. After all those biological upgrades, you might act more like a robot than a real human being.
Getting eight hours of rest every night is one of the best gifts you can give yourself to stay happy and bright.
