Sleep restores the brain's processing power

Each waking period pulls the brain away from criticality, while sleep helps the system reset to this optimal state

By tracking the brain activity of sleeping rats, Keith Hengen, assistant professor of biology, and his team of researchers from Arts & Sciences, in a recent study, have shown that sleep plays a crucial role in restoring the brain's computing power. According to Hengen, the brain can be likened to a biological computer.

By combining concepts from physics and biology, the team concluded that the brain regularly needs to reset its operating system in order to reach a state of ‘criticality.’ This optimizes thinking and processing, which is essential for our cognitive function.

The physical concept of criticality describes a system at the tipping point between order and chaos, where the encoding and processing of information are maximized.

The study shows that each waking period pulls the brain away from criticality, while sleep helps the system reset to this optimal state.

This suggests that sleep is a systemic solution to a systemic problem, as Hengen puts it.