Effects Upon The Brain
The longer the brain has been awake, the greater thing the spontaneous firing rates of cerebral cortex neurons with this increase being reversed by sleep. Another effect of wakefulness (which may or may not be related to this) is that it lowers the small stores of glycogen held in the astrocytes that can supply energy to the brain's neurons—one of the functions of sleep it has been proposed is to create the opportunity for them to be replenished.
Read more about this topic: Wakefulness
Famous quotes containing the words effects and/or brain:
“Consider what effects which might conceivably have practical bearings we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“Bear with my weakness. My old brain is troubled.
Be not disturbed with my infirmity.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)