Stress, bad nights, sleep debt: how does the brain manage it all?
Independent work on mice has highlighted several groups of neurons involved in how stress modulates our nights and in monitoring our sleep deficit and its recovery.
Sleep disorders are commonplace and, as we age, can be linked to diseases like Alzheimer's. It's no wonder that research teams around the world are trying to understand the mechanisms at work in the brain. With the hope, perhaps one day, of treating these disorders by directly targeting the affected areas of the brain.
For many of us, a period of stress often leads to poor, broken, or restless nights. And some have even noticed that a lack of sleep creates a kind of "sleep debt" that must eventually be repaid.
“To compensate for a sleep debt, we generally sleep longer and more deeply – this is homeostatic regulation,” the site explains .
Courrier International
