We all know how difficult it is to pay attention at work -- or to get anything done, for that matter -- after a night of bad sleep.

It should come as little surprise, then, that sleep and attention are critically linked. Now, a new study from neuroscientists at the Queensland Brain Institute in Australia reveals why the ability to pay attention during the day relies on our capacity to do the opposite at night.

The researchers explain that sleep and attention are "like yin and yang" -- opposing forces that work together to create harmony -- and the two systems may have even co-evolved to regulate each other.

"The yin and yang in Chinese philosophy describe contrary forces that are in fact interdependent and give rise to each other, as with light and dark," Leonie Kirszenblat, a neuroscience researcher at the University of Queensland and the study's lead author, told The Huffington Post. "Sleep and attention seem like opposite brain states, but they may actually arise from similar brain mechanisms that relate to ignoring the outside world."

Sleep and attention may balance each other, because the ability to pay attention depends on getting adequate sleep and the amount of sleep we need seems to be driven by learning and performing tasks that require attention.