Eight hours of sleep a day seems like a colossal waste of time, doesn’t it? After all, in the hectic world we live in, those precious hours could be put to use responding to all those e-mails or hitting the spa. So why do we need so much sleep? Dr. Neil B. Kavey, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, offers some clues:
We don't fully understand the importance of sleep. What we do know is that sleep is an anabolic, or building, process. And we think it restores the body’s energy supplies that have been depleted through the day’s activities.
Sleep is also the time when the body does most of its repair work; muscle tissue is rebuilt and restored. We know, for example, that growth hormone is secreted during sleep. This hormone is important for growth in children, but is also important throughout adulthood in rebuilding tissues.
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http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3076707/#.UpDLtsRkMfQ
