Features Editor
A study in The Journal of Neuroscience stated that prolonged lack of sleep in mice led to 25% of their brain cells dying. The study, performed by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, was executed by putting mice on sleep schedules similar to night workers, which usually entails working for three days with only four to five hours of sleep every 24 hours. Professor Sigrid Veasey of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology believes the next step is to discover if the findings in mice are representative of humans. Veasey proposes examining the brains of night shift workers after death in order to examine their brain cells.
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| Are you losing brain cells? |
The
study found that sleep loss leads to damage of locus coeruleus (LC) neurons,
which affects a person’s alertness and cognition. Loss of LC neurons has also
been linked to lapses in attention, depressed mood, and acceleration in the
courses of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
This
study may lead to the creation of a medicine that would boost a natural
chemical in the brain involved in sleep recovery in order to protect brain
cells.
