Sleep patterns

As most of you may have already suspected, the results of several recent studies have indicated a relationship to sleep with cognitive functions in humans such as reported in this article in a recent issue of US News and World report: Poor Sleep May Age Your Brain. Furthermore, it appears that both too little sleep or too much sleep may be linked to CNS disease states.

Do a little research of your own and, using your understanding of nervous tissue and the CNS, tell us why you think sleep patterns have such dramatic effects upon cognitive functions. Be sure to include a citation for any sources outside your textbook that you use.