An Artistic Clean-up: The Body’s Need for Sleep

By Rebeca Funes

As an artist paints, the canvas becomes covered in colors, with each brush stroke coming together to create an image. Like a painter, your brain paints the canvas that is your mind and body with complex images, thoughts, and emotions. By the end of the day, these paints blur together but with sleep, the brain is able to clean off the excess paint and prepare a brand new canvas for the next day.

Affecting nearly every system in the body, sleep is one of the most essential processes a person has. Although researchers have not found a definitive answer to why we sleep and have proposed various theories, researchers agree that sleep is essential to the human body.

The body follows a 24-hour cycle known as the circadian rhythm. This rhythm is made up of several internal clocks in the human body, with its main clock, the central circadian clock, located in the brain. The circadian rhythm is responsible for when you feel tired and when you wake.. 

“I think sleep is important as a student in the medical strand because it allows our bodies to get the proper rest we need to function and do everyday tasks. Sleep lets your brain recharge, skipping rest to study hurts your focus and memory, making it dangerous when trying to help patients,” stated junior Leilah Gonzalez.

Sleep is especially essential for students as it plays a direct role in memory and learning. School requires students to constantly learn new information and retain it to build on it. However with a lack of sleep, the ability to perform these activities is significantly affected. In order to do these things the brain undergoes acquisition, consolidation, and recall.

Acquisition is the ability to learn new information, consolidation is the process of turning short-term memory into long-term memory, and recall is the ability to retrieve those memories later. The brain is able to do acquisition and recall when awake but studies have shown that memory consolidation is most effectively done during sleep.

Additionally, an overall review of different studies published in May 2025–with some studies covering how sleep deprivation contributes to an increased risk of depression and other mood disorders while others examined the effects on executive functions from not getting enough sleep–found that a lack of sleep negatively impacts workplace safety, academic success, and general well-being. 

“I’d say I typically get five-six hours of sleep on a school night. I think this is what everyone gets and honestly I definitely feel the effects, especially in the morning. I feel drained and find myself trying to stay awake throughout the day.” commented senior Joel Sanchez.

Not only is sleep crucial to the mind but it’s also to one’s physical health. When a person goes to sleep, a hormone known as the human growth hormone (HGH) or growth hormone (GH) is released. This hormone promotes growth, development, and cell repair. This hormone is mainly produced during deep sleep with around 50% to 75% being released during slow-wave sleep, the deepest stage of Non-REM sleep.

 Sleep also plays a role in immune system function. During sleep, the body produces protective proteins like cytokines that help fight infection, boosts T-cells, and helps the body remember past germs. T-cells are a type of white blood cell that fights viruses and cancer cells.

Consequently, a lack of sleep can not only make your body more susceptible to illness, but can reduce antibody response by 50% after getting a vaccine and trigger inflammation which in turn can increase the risks of obesity, diabetes, and heart issues.

Like a painter, the brain is constantly at work painting ideas, emotions, memories, and much more on the canvas that is the body and mind. However, as the day progresses the colors on the canvas become muddied to the point you can’t distinguish the details. But, with sleep the body and mind are able to reset–supporting memory and focus while also supporting function and growth.