Sleep to Avoid Overfitting?
Hello Everyone,
I recently read the paper "The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization"
The discussion seemed utterly interesting and certainly kept me up reading. I wonder your thoughts on OBH and alternative theories.
IMO, it makes good sense. People who suffered insomnia would know the tendency to be overly compulsive and fixated on such times. It is a common sense advice to "sleep over a decision". Sleeping too much is also known to reduce cognitive performance to some extent. Basically all I know and experience about sleep aligns with the theory presented in the paper.
However, I am also looking to hear your opinions and counterviews on the theory. What is the evolutionary purpose of sleep and dream specifically? What is the cause of differences in sleep patterns (duration, phases, effects etc.) of different animals? How does this affects the body of the organism, including brain?