BrainCraft | The Antioxidant Benefits of Sleep ft. OTHER Vanessa Hill! | Season 4 | Episode 25 | PBS

Why do we sleep? We know that sleep plays a role in learning and memory, but that doesn't really explain why sleep evolved. A lesser known theory, that sleep serves a purpose of flushing out free radicals (aka "Reactive Oxygen Species") is gaining traction after some research by Vanessa Hill and colleagues at Columbia University found that sleep has antioxidant benefits.