Think You're Tired Now?

Something to think about -- that is, if you have enough brain cells left....


Missing out on sleep may cause the brain to stop producing new cells, a study has suggested.

A team from Princeton University working on rats found that a lack of sleep affected the hippocampus, a brain region involved in forming memories. A stress hormone causes the effect.

The researchers compared animals that were deprived of sleep for 72 hours with others that were not. They found those who missed out on rest had higher levels of the stress hormone corticosterone.

They also produced significantly fewer new brain cells in a particular region of the hippocampus.
When the animals' corticosterone levels were kept at a constant level, the reduction in cell proliferation was stopped. The results suggest that elevated stress hormone levels resulting from sleep deprivation could explain the reduction in cell production in the adult brain.

Sleep patterns were restored to normal within a week. However levels of nerve cell production (neurogenesis) were not restored for two weeks, and the brain appears to boost its efforts in order to counteract the shortage.

Writing in PNAS, the researchers led by Dr Elizabeth Gould, said that although the role of nerve cell production in adults remained unknown, "the suppression of adult neurogenesis may underlie some of the cognitive deficits associated with prolonged sleep deprivation. "

People who experience a lack of sleep experience concentration problems and other difficulties.

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news. bbc.co.uk/ go/pr/fr/ -/2/hi/health/