sh...my computer is sleeping

well! according to scientificamerican.com ,memory retention is enhanced by sleep.Although studies as well as records say that humans can live without sleep for around 10 to 12 days.And it says saturation of a particular set of connections not general fatigue,cause the deterioration in mental and physical health. A set of studies done on a 17 year old student who made the world record of not sleeping for 11days continously tells us that he didn't experience serious medical, psychological, neurological or psychiatric problems, although it rendered him cognitively dysfunctional.And if we think it in context to the present problem of learning in artificial systems, what would be the sleep-equivalent in such a system?? Because if sleep improves learning , then how can we make our artificial networks sleep? There is one more doubt..as we all know, information is transferred by the neurons in discrete signals equivalent to electrical signals, then how can the connections in a neuron get saturated?? during one's sleep too, the brain doesn't cease to function, then how does the brain gets rest ?what is that element that gets restored during our sleep?? and do bacterias and viruses sleep?? These are few of the questions troubling me today.if you have any idea..do let me know.