How does not sleeping affect your brain?

Answer 1

The body uses the time during sleep to regenerate and recuperate. In addition while asleep the brain dreams (both the kind you remember and the kind you don't) and works out it's problems and solutions to trauma and waking situations. When deprived of sleep the brain is also deprived of the ability to dream and work out it's problems. During tests that deprived people of sleep almost all exhibited marked tendencies to, in general terms, mental instability. While different people exhibit different specifics, all were markedly beyond the realm of normal behavior.