Learn · TED

Talk22 min

Why do we sleep?

Russell Foster · TED

Watch At TED

About

Russell Foster is a circadian neuroscientist: He studies the sleep cycles of the brain. And he asks: What do we know about sleep? Not a lot, it turns out, for something we do with one-third of our lives. In this talk, Foster shares three popular theories about why we sleep, busts some myths about how much sleep we need at different ages -- and hints at some bold new uses of sleep as a predictor of mental health.

The talk

  1. Why do we sleep? 22 min · TED's player

Credits and licence

Institution
TED
Department
TEDGlobal 2013
Speaker
Russell Foster
Year
2013
Level
For everyone
Language
English
Subjects
Biology, Medicine and health, Psychology and the brain
Source
TED
Licence
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, as TED states it. Non-commercial use only, and no changed versions. TED's terms
Attribution
TED Talks are licensed by TED under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International and are shown here in TED's own player, as TED's usage policy asks.
Who can watch
TED gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from what the source says about it. How courses are placed