TX 701 Essential Academic Skills (Subtest

Read the passage below; then answer the question that follows. (1) For decades, sleep was treated as wasted time, an interruption to be minimized by the ambitious and the productive. (2) Recent research has overturned that view almost completely. (3) During deep sleep, the brain flushes out metabolic waste, including proteins linked to Alzheimer's disease, through a drainage system that becomes far more active at night. (4) Memories formed during the day are replayed and consolidated, transferring from fragile short-term storage into durable long-term networks. (5) Chronic sleep deprivation, by contrast, has been tied to impaired judgment, weakened immune function, and elevated rates of heart disease. (6) Despite this evidence, roughly a third of adults still sleep fewer than the recommended seven hours each night. (7) The cultural reflex to wear exhaustion as a badge of honor, it seems, has proven remarkably difficult to unlearn. The author's claim that sleep is valuable rests on the assumption that: