TED Talk I Chose: Why Do We Sleep?

Mr. Russell Foster has done research on why we sleep.  He says that sleep is the most important behavioral experience that we do, which most people my age would agree without a second thought.  Russel says that an average of 36 percent of our lives are spent asleep.
Russell did this TED Talk to change our views on sleep.  He says that sleep is important but must of us don't give it a second thought and put it aside.  Why do we sleep?  Restoration - restore, replace, and rebuild during the night.  Energy Conservation - Sleep to save calories.  Brain Processing and Memory Conservation.  But what I found to be the most interesting was his knowledge on sleep deprivation.  We as species, are desperately sleep deprived.  Teenagers need an average of 9 hours of sleep a night but most are only getting around 5, it's simply not enough.  When you have a lack of sleep, you have poor memory, increased impulsiveness, and poor judgement.  Thousands of people are killed in accidents including car crashes revolving around poor decision making.
For people who tend to stay up very late, your brain is tired and is searching for something to make it up.  Drugs, stimulants, alcohol are all things that may make you think that you're not tired when you're actually slowly crashing.
Russell gives lots of good tips on how to get a better nights sleep.  It helps to make your sleeping area in a way, a haven for sleep, Make it comfortable.
Mr.  Russell Foster has a very good idea on sleep in my opinion.
http://www.ted.com/talks/russell_foster_why_do_we_sleep.html