Nature

an experiment

I don't know yet.

Why is it so far?

Like it sounds so simple.

They had no idea.

But now the data's...

I find this not only refreshing, but at some level astounding.

Nature. Welcome back to the nature

podcast. This week, the immune cells that clean fly brains during sleep

and the Europeans that didn't become farmers.

I'm Nick Patrick Howe and I'm Benjamin Thompson.

Music farmers. I'm Nick Patrick Howell and I'm Benjamin Thompson. Although researchers don't fully understand why, sleep is important.

It's a behaviour that's found across the animal kingdom. Humans, hydra, ostriches,

octopuses. We all enjoy 40 winks. And while the exact mechanisms can vary, generally, but not always,

sleep has some shared characteristics. It's reversible, so it's not death. While you're asleep,

it takes more to get your attention, that's why I have two alarm clocks, and the less you have of it,

the more you need it. Sleep is a time when the body performs a lot of important housekeeping tasks,

things like storing memories and cleaning out

waste that may have accumulated in the brain during waking hours. Understandably, much sleep study

focuses on the brain, but sleep, and in particular the lack of sleep, can affect the whole

body, things like the workings of the immune system,

...