Why Do We Need Sleep And What Happens When We Do?

REM is a stage where the human eyes make rapid/darting eye movements as the body enters deep sleep. This degree paralyzes the nerves creating a significant loss in muscle tone. It also lowers blood pressure, breathing, heart rates and causes dreams to occur.

While it virtually has the same characteristics, dreams are not hallucinations. But unlike scenes induced by schizophrenia and the likes, dreams, in contrast, are activated primary and secondary sensory cortices. It happens because the frontal cortex, which controls inhibition, are disrupted. Sometimes, when dreams tap something emotional, it might be a sign that the limbic system was involved in the process.

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People call it ?lucid dreaming? when you are aware that you?re in the premise of your dream. During this process, the frontal cortex shows to have increased activity compared to the typical REM sleep. Nowadays, humans and animals aren?t the only creatures to experience dreams. The Google artificial neural network creates images out of white noise. Results are intricate and beautiful images that the company calls as ?AI dreams.?

All of these explanations and it still hasn?t answered the age-old question: ?Why do we sleep?? While there are countless theories about the topic, no one still knows the answer to that. What the world knows about it is that it?s important for memory to stick in our brains and gives the body energy.

Sleeping allegedly cleans the slate to our body and mind so we can move and learn more the next day. The existence of sleep still has no definite reason, but the factors that we have in our hands right now are enough to make it an important part of any human routine.

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I Everyone who grew up in the 90s was thrilled when news spread about the live-action and photorealistic remake of the classic Disney animation, The Lion King. The film was directed and produced by Jon Favreau, who was responsible for such outstanding films as Iron Man and The Jungle Book. With an impressive roster of films under his belt, the expectations of the remake were high. Unfortunately, the movie was met with much disappointment and frustration.

II Favreau was intent on carrying out his own vision for the remake: that it should look as realistic as possible. However, making the artistic decision to have it be a nature documentary type film meant he had to sacrifice exaggeration, which is a necessary thing for live-action films to express emotions. To compensate, the film relied on vocal acting. The film had an all-star cast including Beyonc, Donald Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and of course, the original Mufasa, James Earl Jones.

III Adam Valdez, a visual effects supervisor at the Moving Picture Company (MPC), explained that in producing the remake, they had to keep the exaggerations to a minimum. Stylizing the animals, such as distorting their proportions, was not an option. For instance, they couldnt make the felines eyes bigger or make their movements too dramatized.

IV Sadly, since our beloved characters looks, gestures, and actions had to be toned down, the movie was not able to invoke the same powerful emotions as the original. For instance, because of the lack of facial expressions, the gut-wrenching scene in which Mufasa dies just didnt have that oomph. What should have been an animated duet between young Simba and Nala, Just Cant Wait To Be King, lacked punch as well, because the animals dance sequence simply had to go. Zazus Morning Report did not even make the cut.

V Curious how MPC managed to create those oh so realistic characters and movements? The visual effects and production company built new software that allowed them to create impressive fur shading as well as skin and muscle simulation. How amazing were those veins protruding from Mufasas skin whenever he walked? Or how his mane beautifully swung and swayed as the wind blew across his face?

VI Perhaps the most reliable tool to convey emotions is facial expression. But, since animals cant really move their mouths the way humans do when we talk, the task became pretty challenging. Originally, they exaggerated eyebrow movements in the lions, but it was too unrealistic, so they had to dial it down. Instead, they capitalized on jaw motion, jumping, and prancing to express emotions.

Why Do We Need Sleep And What Happens When We Do?

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