Why do we sleep?

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We spend about 8 hours/day, 56 hours/week, 240 hours/month, and 2920 hours in a year doing it...that's right...SLEEPING. We apparently spend one third of our lives doing nothing. But is sleep really doing nothing? It looks like it..our eyes are closed, our muscles are relaxed, our breathing is regular, and we do not respond to sound or light. If you take a look at what is happening inside of your brain, however, you will find quite a different situation - the brain is very active. You are doing something. Scientists can record brain activity by attaching electrodes to the scalp and then connecting these electrodes to a machine called an electroencephalograph. the encephalogram (or EEG) is the record of brain activity recorded with this machine. The wavy lines of the EEG are what most people know as "brain waves".