SWITCH THAT TELLS THE BRAIN TO GO SLEEP

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER THE SWITCH THAT TELLS THE BRAIN TO GO SLEEP

Scientists think they have discovered the switch in the brain that tells our bodies when to go to sleep.

The discovery could pave the way for a treatment to compare sleep disorders such as insomnia. The scientists think the switch works by regulating neurons, or nerve cells in the brain.

When someone has been awake for too many hours, the mechanism fires when the body is tired. When you are tired, these neurons in the brain shout loud and they send you to sleep. The researchers demonstrated the theory on fruit flies removing the switch to create insomniac insects. They are convinced the same molecular system which forces neurons to fireworks in the human brain. These neurons are also electrically active during sleep and like the flies cells, are the targets of general anesthetics that puts us to sleep. It is therefore likely that a molecular mechanism similar to the one we have discovered in flies also operates in human brains.

The big question now is to figure out what internal signal the sleep switch responds to. What do these sleep promoting cells monitor while we are awake? If we knew what happens in the brain during waking that requires sleep to reset, we might get closer to solving the mystery of why all animals need to sleep.

The other the sleep homeostatic keeps track of waking hours and acts as a switch to make the body nod off. The body clock says it is the right time and the sleep switch has built up pressure during a long waking day.  The sleep homeostatic is similar to the thermostat in your home. A thermostat measure temperature and switches on the heating if it is too cold the sleep homeostatic measures how long a fly has been awake and switches on a small group of specialized cells in the brain if necessary. It is the electrical output of these nerve cells that puts the fly to sleep. Ti is found the insects without the relevant neurons did not have regular sleep – which turned into  insomniacs and were prone to nodding off at irregular hours.