One of the greatest mysteries of science is why we need sleep.
That’s right, folks. We’ve been to the moon, we know what a circadian rhythm is, but we still have no clue why we sleep.
But recently, scientists finally narrowed down sleep to a “switch”:
Researchers from Oxford University have further narrowed the search by subjecting poor fruit flies to sleep deprivation and discovering in the process the molecules that regulate a handful of sleep-promoting neurons in the brain.
Once the molecules act on the neurons, they fire off, telling the brain that we’re tired and need to sleep.
This is wonderful news, because it allows us to perform more studies and find out if the “switch” in the brain can malfunction, or if neural damage to this region can result in insomnia and other sleep disorders.
During sleep, these neurons remain active, which shows they may have more of a purpose than just putting us to sleep.
Hopefully we’ll have a better understanding of why we sleep before we make it to Mars.
