Forget getting eight hours of sleep.
Sleep researchers now say we need at least 8.5 hours of sleep! Why? Because we're stressed -- and because we are bombarded with information all day…and sleep is when our brains actually process much of that information. According to the study author, Penn State professor and sleep expert Dr Daniel Gartenberg, "One of the main functions of sleep is to take all the information we get throughout the day and sort into what's relevant."
The process is called synaptic homeostasis. "It's the idea that one of the main functions of sleep -- besides cell recovery -- is to process information," says Gartenberg. FYI: The average American gets about 7 hours of sleep a night.
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