Sleep Debt Trash Can Brain

ELI5: Why can your body have a "sleep debt" but not a "sleep surplus"? Biology Why does my 15 hours of sleep on the weekend not counteract the 4 hours I get on a weeknight? Your brain is like a trash can. Throughout the day it fills up with garbage, and at night that garbage is slowly removed. If you don't get enough sleep, only some of the garbage gets taken out. Over time, it builds up until your can is almost always full. A full can is bad and makes you fall asleep or hallucinate. However if you sleep lots and lots, your trash-can can't get under 0% full. It will always only hold a certain amount of garbage. “Your brain is like a trash can.” Truest thing ever said, no need to read any further than that really

A screenshot of a biology question and two comments explaining sleep debt with a trash-can analogy. The punchline is the absurdly literal comparison of the brain to a trash can, followed by a blurry, wide-eyed orange cat reacting as if the explanation is profound. It can be sent as a reaction to an oddly convincing, ridiculous, or overly literal explanation.

• @eternalclassic / 7802 2022-02-01