4 Amazing Things Hiding On Earth (That We Just Discovered)

Because of such technological marvels as Google Maps (and the many volumes of Where's Waldo?), you'd think that every inch of planet Earth has been thoroughly documented by this point. But the truth is, science pulls mind-blowing finds out of its cavernous, all-knowing ass more or less every 15 minutes. Here are four amazing discoveries that just occurred while the rest of civilization was bingeing on Teen Mom and waffle tacos.

#4. NASA Finds the World's Longest Canyon Beneath Greenland

Even if you didn't sleep through your elementary school geography lessons, you probably have an inkling that Greenland is 75 percent covered in ice. But what you didn't know was that tucked underneath all that ice sits the longest canyon in the world.

J. Bamber, University Bristol
"Oh honey, size isn't everything. You're still 'grand' to me." -Grand Canyon's wife

NASA discovered the 460-mile-long canyon while sending special radar signals through Greenland's ice, probably in hopes of finding something green so we could justify that stupid name. The longer it took the signals to bounce back, the deeper the canyon -- and scientists aren't even done measuring it yet.
The best part of the whole story is that the longest canyon in the world has been playing hide-and-seek with us since before humanity existed. You win this round, awe-inspiring geological formation, but you'll get yours when we finally go extinct.

#3. Archaeologists Discover Priceless Secret Tomb, Excavate It in Secret

Among the many details The Goonies got right was the notion that once a secret treasure is found, everyone will want to get their grubby hands all over it. So archaeologists from the University of Warsaw probably had visions of Mama Fratelli pinballing through their skulls when they discovered an untouched Peruvian tomb full of gold, badass artifacts, and sultry lady mummies.
The tomb belonged to the predecessors of the Incas, the Wari, and -- evidence of human sacrifices notwithstanding -- these guys seemed hilarious.

Daniel Giannoni
We're assuming this is a whoopee cushion.

Furthermore, the researchers who found this 1,300-year-old tomb managed to keep the whole dig a secret for months. Why didn't they make a huge announcement to the world the second they found the first set of gold earrings? Because Goonies -- they knew everyone would come and raid the artifacts. Instead, they waited until their pockets were lined with treasure and body parts before issuing a press release months later.

The press release consisted solely of this photo, published full page in Grave Robbers Monthly.

#2. Geologists Discover 2.6-Billion-Year-Old Water, Drink It

Deep in the recesses of a Canadian mine, scientists found a pool of water believed to be between 1.5 billion and 2.6 billion years old. This water is so old that researchers think it's from back when that section of Canada was the actual ocean floor. And after theorizing that there may be lifeforms thriving within the water that are capable of living for billions of years independent of the sun, the geologists proceeded to drink that shit. One taster described the water as "very salty and bitter."

Brian Summers
"I added a sprinkle of anise seed to round out the flavor."

It's unclear what exact kind of eldritch horror the research team is destined to evolve into, but we'll get a better idea once their ventral polyps sprout up.

#1. Scientists Find One of the Largest Volcanoes in the Solar System Next to Japan

In a recent scientific discovery that could possibly explain the existence of Godzilla, scientists have found that the biggest volcano on Earth and one of the biggest volcanoes in the solar system has been hiding on the seafloor a thousand miles east of Japan.

Nature
"Well, men, this thing is filled with either radioactive lizard eggs or Kinder egg toys. We're praying for the toys."

For the last 20 years, researchers have been stumped as to whether the huge lumpy underwater mass was a group of volcanoes or just one big mama volcano. Turns out that at 120,000 square miles, the world's biggest zit is the latter. This thing is the size of New Mexico, and the nearest competition is all the way out on Mars. This thing is so big and wide that if you stood on its side, you wouldn't be able to tell which way was downhill. Hawaii's Mauna Loa, which is Earth's largest active volcano, would only take up 2 percent of this thing if you could magically smoosh them together.
So on the one hand, we've got this massive secret geological treasure that we're just now finding, which is exciting. On the other hand, we've only got about five minutes before Japan figures out a way to fetishize it.

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/4-amazing-things-hiding-earth-that-we-just-discovered/#ixzz3ONvBV3Iu
we get in here......
http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/4-amazing-things-hiding-earth-that-we-just-discovered/

WELCOME 2015

WELCOME 2015

My greetings to you and your family on the occasion of New Year 2015. May this year brings joy, prosperity and success to you!!!

A Lesson in Life

Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of good or bad luck. Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of your soul. Without these small tests, if they be events, illnesses or relationships, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere. If someone hurts you, betrays you , or breaks you heart, forgive them. For they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to who you open your heart to.

If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but because they are teaching you to love and opening your heart and eyes to things you would have never seen or felt without them.
Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take from it everything that you possibly can, for you may never be able to experience it again.
Talk to people you have never talked to before, and actually listen. Hold your head up because you have every right to. Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you don't believe in yourself, no one else will believe in you either.
You can make of your life anything you wish. Create your own life and then go out and live it.

Allow Your Own Inner Light to Guide You

1. Allow Your Own Inner Light to Guide YouThere comes a time when you must stand alone.
2. You must feel confident enough within yourself to follow your own dreams.
3. You must be willing to make sacrifices.
4. You must be capable of changing and rearranging your priorities so that your final goal can be achieved.
5. Sometimes, familiarity and comfort need to be challenged.
6. There are times when you must take a few extra chances and create your own realities.
7. Be strong enough to at least try to make your life better.
8. Be confident enough that you won't settle for a compromise just to get by.
9. Appreciate yourself by allowing yourself the opportunities to grow, develop, and find your true sense of purpose in this life.
10. Don't stand in someone else's shadow when it's your sunlight that should lead the way.

Important Facts Of Life

Health is the first of life

Wealth is the next of life

Character’s courage is the best of life

Respect is must in life

Turning is the test of life

God’s blessing is the crest of life

Love is crucial for life

Happiness is the perfume of life

Truth is the search of life

Death is the rest of life.

Credits: Marcin Tomaszewski for Photography

Strange Things you must know

A rat can last longer without water than a camel.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.

The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.

A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and
down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

A 2 X 4 is really 1-1/2" by 3-1/2".

During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur," a small red car can be seen
in the distance (and Heston's wearing a watch).

On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily!
(That explains a few mysteries....)

Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, "Elementary, my dear Watson."

Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per
side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.

There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange,
purple and silver.

Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space
because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.

The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

Weatherman Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald.

If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will
instantly go mad and sting itself to death. (Who was the sadist who
discovered this??)

Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down
so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.

The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in
the USA."

The original name for butterfly was flutterby.

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which
stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player
for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet.

By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot
sink into quicksand.

Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a
piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin
look-alike contest.

An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman
to take more than three steps backwards while dancing!

The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book
most often stolen from public libraries.

The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.

Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!

In the 1400's a law was set forth that a man was not allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of thumb"

The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Men can read smaller print then women can; women can hear better.

It is impossible to lick your elbow.

The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska

The average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.

The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:

Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander, the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?

A. Their birthplace.

Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"?

A. One thousand

Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?
A. All invented by women.

Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey

In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... "goodnight, sleep tight."

It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the "honeymoon".

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them, "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down."

It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's"

Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.

~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~

At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.

http://www.robinsweb.com/humor/strange_things.html

6 Stories of Super Successes Who Overcame Failure

Failure is not the alternative to success. It’s something to be avoided, but it’s also only a temporary setback on a bigger, more significant course. Everybody encounters failure at one point or another. What truly matters is how you react to and learn from that failure.
Take the stories of these six entrepreneurs. Their stories end in massive success, but all of them are rooted in failure. They’re perfect examples of why failure should never stop you from following your vision.

1. Arianna Huffington got rejected by 36 publishers.

It’s hard to believe that one of the most recognizable names in online publications was once rejected by three dozen major publishers. Huffington’s second book, which she tried to publish long before she created the now ubiquitously recognizable Huffington Post empire, was rejected 36 times before it was eventually accepted for publication.
Related: Barbara Corcoran: Failure Is My Specialty
Even Huffington Post itself wasn’t a success right away. In fact, when it launched, there were dozens of highly negative reviews about its quality and its potential. Obviously, Huffington overcame those initial bouts of failure and has cemented her name as one of the most successful outlets on the web.

2. Bill Gates watched his first company crumble.

Bill Gates is now one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, but he didn’t earn his fortune in a straight line to success. Gates entered the entrepreneurial scene with a company called Traf-O-Data, which aimed to process and analyze the data from traffic tapes (think of it like an early version of big data).
He tried to sell the idea alongside his business partner, Paul Allen, but the product barely even worked. It was a complete disaster. However, the failure did not hold Gates back from exploring new opportunities, and a few years later, he created his first Microsoft product, and forged a new path to success.

3. George Steinbrenner bankrupted a team.

Before Steinbrenner made a name for himself when he acquired ownership of the New York Yankees, he owned a small basketball team called the Cleveland Pipers back in 1960. By 1962, as a result of Steinbrenner’s direction, the entire franchise went bankrupt.
That stretch of failure seemed to follow Steinbrenner when he took over the Yankees in the 1970s, as the team struggled with a number of setbacks and losses throughout the 1980s and 1990s. However, despite public fear and criticism of Steinbrenner’s controversial decisions, eventually he led the team to an amazing comeback, with six World Series entries between 1996 and 2003, and a record as one of the most profitable teams in Major League Baseball.
Related: To Manage Innovation, Manage Failure Better

4. Walt Disney was told he lacked creativity.

One of the most creative geniuses of the 20th century was once fired from a newspaper because he was told he lacked creativity. Trying to persevere, Disney formed his first animation company, which was called Laugh-O-Gram Films. He raised $15,000 for the company but eventually was forced to close Laugh-O-Gram, following the close of an important distributor partner.
Desperate and out of money, Disney found his way to Hollywood and faced even more criticism and failure until finally, his first few classic films started to skyrocket in popularity.

5. Steve Jobs was booted from his own company.

Steve Jobs is an impressive entrepreneur because of his boundless innovations, but also because of his emphatic comeback from an almost irrecoverable failure. Jobs found success in his 20s when Apple became a massive empire, but when he was 30, Apple’s board of directors decided to fire him.
Undaunted by the failure, Jobs founded a new company, NeXT, which was eventually acquired by Apple. Once back at Apple, Jobs proved his capacity for greatness by reinventing the company’s image and taking the Apple brand to new heights.

6. Milton Hershey started three candy companies before Hershey's.

Everyone knows Hershey’s chocolate, but when Milton Hershey first started his candy production career, he was a nobody. After being fired from an apprenticeship with a printer, Hershey started three separate candy-related ventures, and was forced to watch all of them fail.
In one last attempt, Hershey founded the Lancaster Caramel Company, and started seeing enormous results. Believing in his vision for milk chocolate for the masses, he eventually founded the Hershey Company and became one of the most well-known names in the industry.
Draw inspiration from these stories the next time you experience failure, no matter the scale. In the moment, some failure might seem like the end of the road, but remember, there are countless successful men and women in the world today who are only enjoying success because they decided to push past the inevitable bleakness of failure.
Learn from your mistakes, reflect and accept the failure, but revisit your passion and keep pursuing your goals no matter what.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240492

These 25 Strange Facts Prove Your Body Is A Crazy Miracle

Even though you're around human bodies all day (after all, you have one of your very own), you probably don't know everything there is to know about them. Each of our bodies are a miracle; it's amazing they work the way they do, day in and day out. If you thought what our bodies could do before, once you read this list of insane facts about the human body, you'll be in awe. Never take your own body for granted, because some of the things it can do are mind-blowing.

1.) The average person produces enough saliva in their lifetime to fill 2 swimming pools.

2.) Every 60 seconds, your red blood cells do a complete circuit of your body.

3.) Sometimes, when you have to pee, you can visibly see that your bladder is bigger.

4.) Most babies are born with blue eyes; exposure to UV light brings out their true color.

5.) Most westerners consume 50 tons of food and 50,000 liters of liquid in their lifetime.

6.) It can take your finger and toenails 1/2 a year to grow an entirely new nail (from base to tip).

7.) The muscles that control your eyes contract about 100,000 times a day (that's the equivalent of giving your legs a workout by walking 50 miles).

8.) Over the course of your lifetime, you'll shed about 40lbs of skin.

9.) Your brain uses about 20% of your oxygen and caloric intake.

10.) In each kidney, there are 1 million filters that clean around 1.3 liters of blood every minute and push out close to 1.5 liters of urine every day.

11.) Ovaries contain over 500,000 eggs, but only about 400 get the opportunity to create life.

12.) Everyone has a completely unique smell (except for twins).

13.) Why doesn't your stomach digest itself? That's because your stomach cells are created faster than they can be destroyed.

14.) You have about half-a-million sweat glands that produce about a pint of sweat daily.

15.) Humans are extremely visual; 90% of the information we gather from our surroundings is from our eyesight.

16.) It's nearly impossible to tickle yourself.

17.) Baby foreskin is often used as a skin graft for burn victims.

18.) Your bones, pound for pound, are 4x stronger than concrete.

19.) Your skin is the largest organ in your body; if an adult male's skin were to be stretched out, it would cover 20 square feet.

20.) In order to taste something, our saliva needs to dissolve it (try drying off your tongue and tasting something).

21.) Men produce about 10 million new sperm daily (approximately enough to repopulate the entire planet in 6 months).

22.) In just 30 minutes, your body can produce enough heat to boil half a gallon of water.

23.) There are more than 300,000,000 capillaries in your lungs and if they were stretched out tip to tip they would reach approximately the distance between Atlanta and LA.

24.) Frequent dreams are correlated with having a higher IQ.

25.) You'll be about 1cm shorter when you go to bed at night compared to when you wake up in the morning. Your cartilage in your spine slowly compresses throughout the day.

http://www.viralnova.com/strange-body-facts/

Understanding ONENESS- We are all Connected

I want humanity to know oneness. It sounds complicated at first, but it is simple and will change your life forever. It did for me.
Oneness is more than a concept. It’s an experience and a way of living.
In every culture throughout time there have been saints, mystics, sages, shamans and prophets who have come to the same conclusion: all things in this world are deeply interconnected and ultimately are only diverse expressions of the one original source energy.
This was the essential experience and conviction of most of the worlds’ religious founding leaders. They called the Oneness of life different things: God, Allah, Hashem, The Great Mystery and so on, but the idea of oneness is universal. Oneness means we are each united with all of life.
Oneness is not just a spiritual or religious idea. It is now a clear scientific principle. Einstein died trying to prove the unified field theory, a belief that all life and matter are united by an underlying energy or consciousness.
The great quantum physicists David Bohm, Arthur Eddington, Max Planck and many others were convinced that at the very deepest (smallest) level of all things was energy. Deep within each cell, each molecule, each atom and nucleus, breathes an energy so subtle and yet so essential it could be called “spirit.”

The environmentalists and ecologists also are convinced of this oneness. The pollution in one part of the world impacts the climate, air and water in another. The chemicals the smallest animals eat from our waste and farming practices travel up the food chain until large doses of those chemicals appear in our daily diet. Changes in the habitat or population of any one creature send a ripple effect through the world.

Oneness is the law of nature: what we do to others, we do to ourselves.
Imagine it like this: what if the force that preceded all life was like an ocean? In time ice formed and was floating on the surface. The ice is unlike the ocean. It floats on the ocean, and it doesn’t even look like the ocean. But in time, the conditions change, and the ice melts back into the ocean. Was it every really different? Separate?
Regardless of whether we believe in the Garden of Eden or the big bang, something came before it all, a vast, endless, infinite, eternal something. That same source-force is here right now. It gave rise to all things, and it is inside you, around you and will exist long after we are all gone, which means we are all related through this origin and oneness.

If you truly understood this, you would not need to be told to be kind you would not need to be told to recycle or forgive or love or respect yourself. You wouldn’t worry about who wins you’d be sure that no one loses. You would love others as yourself, and you’d see the spark of the divine in all things. You’d know that every experience is a lesson, a chance to grow toward understanding ONENESS.

BUILDING BRIDGES

Once upon a time two brothers who lived on adjoining farms fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side by side, sharing machinery, and trading labor and goods as needed without a hitch.
Then the long collaboration fell apart. It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference, and finally it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence.

One morning there was a knock on John's door. He opened it to find a man with a carpenter's toolbox. "I'm looking for a few days work," he said.
"Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there. Could I help you?"
"Yes," said the older brother. "I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at that farm. That's my neighbor, in fact, it's my younger brother. Last week there was a meadow between us and he took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I'll go him one better. See that pile of lumber curing by the barn? I want you to build me a fence - an 8-foot fence - so I won't need to see his place anymore. Cool him down, anyhow."

The carpenter said, "I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I'll be able to do a job that pleases you."
The older brother had to go to town for supplies, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day.
The carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, nailing.
About sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job. The farmer's eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped.
There was no fence there at all. It was a bridge... a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work handrails and all - and the neighbor, his younger brother, was coming across, his hand outstretched.

"You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I've said and done."
The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and then they met in the middle, taking each other's hand. They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox on his shoulder. "No, wait! Stay a few days. I've a lot of other projects for you," said the older brother.
"I'd love to stay on," the carpenter said, "but, I have many more bridges to build."

5 Amazing Things Your Brain Does While You Sleep

We spend a third of our lives sleeping, an activity as crucial to our health and well-being as eating. But exactly why we need sleep hasn't always been clear. We know that sleep makes us feel more energized and improves our mood, but what's really happening in the brain and body when we're at rest?

Research has identified a number of reasons that sleep is critical to our health. When we're sleeping, the brain is anything but inactive. In fact, during sleep, neurons in the brain fire nearly as much as they do during waking hours -- so it should come as no surprise that what happens during our resting hours is extremely important to a number brain and cognitive functions.

Here are five incredible things your brain does while you're asleep -- and good reason to get some shuteye tonight:

Makes decisions.

The brain can process information and prepare for actions during sleep, effectively making decisions while unconscious, new research has found.

A recent study published in the journal Current Biology found that the brain processes complex stimuli during sleep, and uses this information to make decisions while awake. The researchers asked participants to categorize spoken words that were separated into different categories -- words referring to animals or objects; and real words vs. fake words -- and asked to indicate the category of the word they heard by pressing right or left buttons. When the task become automatic, the subjects were asked to continue but also told that they could fall asleep (they were lying in a dark room). When the subjects were asleep, the researchers began introducing new words from the same categories. Brain monitoring devices showed that even when the subjects were sleeping, their brains continued to prepare the motor function to create right and left responses based on the meaning of the words they heard.

When the participants woke up, however, they had no recollection of the words they heard.

"Not only did they process complex information while being completely asleep, but they did it unconsciously," researchers Thomas Andrillon and Sid Kouider write in the Washington Post. "Our work sheds new light about the brain’s ability to process information while asleep but also while being unconscious."

Creates and consolidates memories.

While you're asleep, the brain is busy forming new memories, consolidating older ones, and linking more recent with earlier memories, during both REM and non-REM sleep. Lack of rest could have a significant affect the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in memory creation and consolidation.

For this reason, sleep plays a very important role in learning -- it helps us to cement the new information we're taking in for better later recall.

“We’ve learned that sleep before learning helps prepare your brain for initial formation of memories,” Dr. Matthew Walker, a University of California, Berkeley sleep researcher, tells the National Institutes of Health. “And then, sleep after learning is essential to help save and cement that new information into the architecture of the brain, meaning that you’re less likely to forget it.”

Think twice before pulling an all-nighter to study for your next exam: If you don't sleep, your ability to learn new information could drop by up to 40 percent, Walker estimates.

Makes creative connections.

Sleep can be a powerful creativity-booster, as the mind in an unconscious resting state can make surprising new connections that it perhaps wouldn't have made in a waking state.

A 2007 University of California at Berkeley study found that sleep can foster "remote associates," or unusual connections, in the brain -- which could lead to a major "a-ha" moment upon waking. Upon waking from sleep, people are 33 percent more likely to make connections between seemingly distantly related ideas.

Clears out toxins.

A series of 2013 studies found that an important function of sleep may be to give the brain a chance to do a little housekeeping.

Researchers at the University of Rochester found that during sleep, the brains of mice clear out damaging molecules associated with neurodegeneration. The space between brain cells actually increased while the mice were unconscious, allowing the brain toflush out the toxic molecules that built up during waking hours.

“We need sleep," Dr. Nedergaard, the study's lead researcher, told the National Institutes of Health. "It cleans up the brain."

If we're not getting enough sleep, our brains don't have adequate time to clear out toxins, which could potentially have the effect of accelerating neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Learns and remembers how to perform physical tasks.

The brain stores information into long-term memory through something known assleep spindles, short bursts of brain waves at strong frequencies that occur during REM sleep.

This process can be particularly helpful for storing information related to motor tasks, like driving, swinging a tennis racquet or practicing a new dance move, so that these tasks become automatic. What happens during REM sleep is that the brain transfers short-term memories stored in the motor cortex to the temporal lobe, where they become long-term memories.

"Practice during sleep is essential for later performance," James B. Maas, a sleep scientist at Cornell University, told the American Psychological Association. "If you want to improve your golf game, sleep longer."