In a new study from Stanford University and elsewhere, researchers found how the brain circuitry involved in regulating sleepfulness and wakefulness degrades over time.
This may help explain why getting a good night’s sleep becomes more difficult as people age.
Previous research has found that sleep loss is linked to a higher risk of poor health outcomes, from high blood pressure to heart attacks, diabetes, depression and a build-up of brain plaque linked to Alzheimer’s.
Insomnia is often treated with a class of drugs known as hypnotics, which include Ambien, but these don’t work very well in older people.
In the study, the team focused on hypocretins, key brain chemicals that are generated only by a small cluster of neurons in the brain’s hypothalamus, a region located between the eyes and ears.
They previously had discovered that hypocretins transmit signals that play a vital role in stabilizing wakefulness.
Since many species experience fragmented sleep as they grow old, it’s hypothesized that the same mechanisms are at play across mammals.
The team selected young and old mice and used light carried by fibers to stimulate specific neurons. They recorded the results using imaging techniques.
They found that the older mice had lost approximately 38 percent of hypocretins compared to younger mice.
They also found that the hypocretins that remained in the older mice were more excitable and easily triggered, making the animals more prone to waking up.
This might be because of the deterioration over time of potassium channels, which are biological on-off switches critical to the functions of many types of cells.
The team says identifying the specific pathway responsible for sleep loss could lead to better drugs.
Current treatments, such as hypnotics, can induce cognitive complaints and falls, and medicines that target the specific channel might work better.
If you care about sleep, please read studies that coffee boosts your physical activity, cuts sleep, affects heartbeat, and how to sleep to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
For more information about wellness, please see recent studies about drugs that can lower severity of sleep apnea by one third, and results showing this herb may help you sleep well at night.
The study is published in Science and was conducted by professor Luis de Lecea et al.
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