If the brain were to define sleep, how would it? The question refers to the adjustments made within the brain by the functional elements that result in the experience of sleep.
Simply, how do the elements that ensure functions during the day change to help fall and stay asleep? Also, at what instance do these elements adjust enough to result in sleep? Why does sleep sometimes succeed bodily fatigue? Why is it necessary for many to close their eyes and avoid ambient light and sound to ensure sleep?
These questions are not the same as brain waves during sleep that the Electroencephalogram (EEG) measures. EEG tracks electrical activities showing that there are differences in electrical relays between sleep and wakefulness, but how and why do these differences or adjustments come about?
There is a recent letter on TIME, AI-Driven Behavior Change Could Transform Health Care, stating that, "Every aspect of our health is deeply influenced by the five foundational daily behaviors of sleep, food, movement, stress management, and social connection. And AI, by using the power of hyper-personalization, can significantly improve these behaviors. What conditions allow you to get quality sleep?"
Why do humans sleep? Why might a consistent lack of sleep result in physiological problems? Why do some people not take sleep seriously? How can the quality of sleep be improved? How can it be easier to fall asleep? What are the gaps in the current understanding of sleep that conceptual brain science may postulate?
When Does Sleep Occur?
Sleep is theorized to occur when sets of electrical and chemical signals that process external senses fall out of their distributive arrangement. Simply, the angles at which sets of electrical and chemical signals should be, to distribute their configurations to each other—in *integration and interpretation of external senses—tilt away, resulting in some truncation, or say tangent, such that what should be relayed is not.
This, conceptually, means that sleep occurs when processing elements for external or say wakeful senses become rearranged, resulting in a temporary impasse, in the interval.
While the sets of signals for all external senses may not be rearranged at the same time, sleep may follow when two or three get substantially rearranged that others notice, by some features [of signals], and then they follow too—resulting in sleep.
In simple terms, sleep can be defined as a tangential plummet of sets of electrical and chemical signals that process external sensory inputs. While wakefulness can be described as altitudes within the circumference. Dreams can be described as the mid-point between, say, the loci and the tangent, or the altitude and the base.
Alternatively, wakefulness arrays are up, sleep arrays are (say) down or different, and dreaming arrays are between both. That is, arrays of sets of electrical and chemical signals, where they are different for wakefulness and for sleep, such that from *integration to interpretation, they are arrayed permissively for external senses, while awake, and then differently, to fall and stay asleep, so that external sensory signals are not largely processed.
*Integration and interpretation of sensory signals are established by neuroscience. Integration occurs at hubs like the thalamus and olfactory bulb—for smell. Interpretation occurs in the cerebral cortex, among others. Electrical signals are ions. Chemical signals are molecules, as established by neuroscience.
What Triggers Changes in Arrays for Sleep and Wakefulness?
Prioritization, conceptually. Across the total sets of electrical and chemical signals, just one set is prioritized, in an instance. This means that only one gets the most attention, with lead for distribution to other sets and thoroughness across its configuration. Other sets of signals are pre-prioritized, though interchanges between both are fast and numerous.
Prioritization makes listening different from hearing. It makes looking different from seeing. Prioritization may correlate with main vision, resulting in seeing details. Pre-prioritization may correlate with peripheral vision, which is seeing just enough to know what is there—without the details—though a switch to prioritization may occur if there is some alteration.
Also, in several instances, there could be another prioritization [listening, speaking, smelling, and so forth] on the mind—so both main and peripheral visions could be pre-prioritized.
The dominance of external senses during wakefulness is because as sensory inputs come in, they get integrated and interpreted, to relate with the external world, resulting in priority and then arrayed in a way that allows the distribution, or say relay from one set to the other, to continue, for interpretations.
So, to sleep, first, there has to be the possibility to taper prioritization from external senses. Shutting the eyes helps, and then avoiding light around may prevent visual prioritization. Low sounds may also prevent auditory prioritization. Avoiding too much cold or heat may prevent touch prioritization. Chewing nothing may prevent gustatory or movement prioritization. Having no strong unwanted smell may prevent olfactory prioritization.
As these senses fall into pre-prioritization, with say two or three, falling steeply, they may leave their position in the array, preventing processing for incoming external inputs. Others may notice [with features] and follow. So, as soon as they all fall to an extent, sleep occurs—or its arrays become incipient.
When an individual is fatigued, a reason that sleep may follow is theorized to be that several internal senses, especially those of the muscles, fall lower within pre-prioritization. Simply, while they may function normally in regular pre-prioritization, the stretch of prioritization elsewhere may draw so much away, including for their distributions and arrays, that their pre-prioritization becomes quite sub-optimal. This then makes their ability to stay functional become low, resulting in the 'feeling' of fatigue—or need for rest, which may then lead to sleep.
Another way it could occur is during too much prioritization, where the sets of signals for movement and balance have been intensely prioritized, and then the configuration plummets, making the efficiency that should be possible, not be, resulting in the feeling of rest and then sleep may occur.
There is also a feature, conceptually, called the principal spot, where a set of signals or some may move to and then dominate, drawing so much, depriving other sets of the densities of signals [ions and molecules] they may need. This may also result in heaviness, fatigue, and some responsibility for states in a depression where getting up is tough.
How can prioritization help you to fall asleep better? Sometimes, with certain worries on the mind, sleep could be delayed. This shows that the sets of signals for the thought also distribute to some emotion or feeling sets, which may give that priority too, so even if the right external situation is present for great sleep, prioritizations within may hinder falling asleep.
Some people listen to some sounds—music, words, and so on, which is its own prioritization, but it often competes with the thought, such that it may not have additional switches in prioritization to emotions or feelings, and may eventually close out into sleep.
Simply, there are some mild-prioritizations that may be necessary to out-compete a dominant prioritized set of signals [anxiety, worries, and others] in the mind to ease falling asleep.
Conceptually, another reason that arrays of sets of signals are likely is that right after some sleep, while prioritization is possible for all external senses, some sets may still be down [in the array], resulting in a gradual process to return to normality of sight, sound, taste, smell, or touch.
Simply, while prioritization is possible right after waking up, some sets may still be at the sleep gradient in the array while taking some time to set out in the right inclination for distributions, not just for configuration [or prioritization].
Why Do Humans Sleep?
It is postulated that sleep is predominantly a state for switches in prioritization, from domination by external senses [while awake] to internal senses [while asleep]. Simply, since prioritization is needed for optimal functions, even for external senses where a function must be prioritized—at least briefly to reach its full capacity—like listening, seeing in detail, and so on, it is the same way that internal senses need to also have their sets of signals prioritized, to get full functional information.
Although prioritization for internal senses occurs across hours, they get longer intervals across the span of sleep. Short prioritization may occur during digestion, exercise, and so forth, but in general, most internal senses get thorough prioritizations during sleep.
It is this switch in prioritization for focus on the sets [of signals] for internal senses that also makes sleep important, conceptually. This implies that the lack of sleep may result in the lack of prioritization for some senses, resulting in going offbeat, say too fast or too slow, in pre-prioritization, without getting updated or prioritized within some intervals. This may lead to physiological problems, if persistent, after some time.
Also, for the sets of signals for external senses, the recurrence of prioritizations during wakefulness and sometimes intensely often wear down the density of ions [electrical signals] and molecules [chemical signals], necessary for formations or configurations, conceptually. So, sleep results in some reset or replenishing of the mass and volumes of ions and molecules that are required for functions and features, resulting in some feeling of freshness or rested when awake, where they just begin to provide their configuration afresh.
The possibility of wearing down signals also makes switches between prioritizations common—across hours.
Prioritization is also useful for sets of signals for viability check since the configuration provisions during prioritization register the function as useful. Simply, it is the prioritization of the set of signals for a function that may indicate that it is still available and functional. This is the reason, conceptually, that exercising is necessary to get cross-prioritization, so that functions remain enabled, since the configurations in prioritization get full volumes.
Though this registration with prioritization sometimes misfires, with phantom limb—where an individual that has lost a limb somewhat has an experience of sensation in the lost limb. This, conceptually, is due to an existing prioritization of sets of signals, for a non-functional limb.
Theoretical Neuroscience and Sleep
Neuroscience has established that melatonin—from the pineal gland and adenosine builds up towards sleep, with the involvement of the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Neuroscience has also established that there is the glymphatic system [or the lymphatic system of the central nervous system] in the brain that functions during sleep.
There is a recent paper in Nature, Brain clearance is reduced during sleep and anesthesia, stating that, "One suggestion is that sleep clears the brain of metabolites and toxins using the ‘glymphatic’ system, a process that cannot operate efficiently during the waking state. How metabolites and toxins are cleared from the brain is unresolved. Disputes surround both the anatomical pathways and the mechanisms of clearance. The glymphatic hypothesis contends that bulk flow of fluid, rather than just diffusion, actively clears solutes from the brain parenchyma during non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM) sleep. This flow is proposed to be driven by hydrostatic pressure gradients established by arterial pulsations. However, whether sleep does enhance clearance by increased bulk flow is unresolved, with findings both supporting and challenging the idea"
It is theorized that the molecules, adenosine, and melatonin, contribute rations into sets of chemical signals, resulting in configurations that may lead to the descent of gradient of several sets [of signals] in the arrays, making sleep easier to come by, as external senses become less prioritized and processed.
When both molecules recede during sleep, it is theorized that they could make sets of change altitudes in arrays, towards wakefulness. It is also theorized that aside from changes in prioritization, during sleep, some other processes needed for optimal functions of the brain during the day may be at play, to certain degrees.
Electrical and Chemical Signals
It is postulated that the two most important elements of sleep are the electrical and chemical signals of the human mind. The human mind is theorized to be the collection of all the electrical and chemical signals, with their interactions and features, in sets, in clusters of neurons, across the central and peripheral nervous systems.
Simply, the body is everything else, but the mind is the signals, with all the interactions and features in sets, obtained within clusters of neurons. Sets of signals hold the configuration for functions. Functions include memory, feelings, emotions, and so forth. Features include distribution, splits, prioritization, pre-prioritization, thick sets, and thin sets.
LLMs
Large language models [LLMs] can be used to present this theoretical sleep neuroscience in a digital health subscription that would detail and calculate prioritization as a feature. The key purpose is to show the possibilities of having a great sleep and falling asleep better, while paying attention to prioritization, as well as to know the reason that sleep is necessary, without causing panic, since sleep deprivation for a prolonged period is the problem, not just one night.
This is a different service from everything else around sleep since it looks at a theoretical basis for sleep, and uses what happens within the human mind to structure how sleep is understood, approached, and explored, taking artificial intelligence [AI] research for health in a direction at the source, the signals of the mind.
It could become a major application of LLMs, and because it is novel, it has the possibility to reach most people, directly or indirectly, since sleep is universal.