. Already, their work is driving home two key new insights: that sleep’s benefits extend far beyond the brain, and that muscles, the immune system, and the gut can all have a say in when and how sleep occurs. That work “might change our focus from studying sleep’s role in complex cognitive processes to how it impacts basic cellular function,” says Alex Keene, a neurogeneticist at Texas A&M University, College Station.
To see whether the jellyfish were really asleep, they built a false bottom to the aquarium and lowered it—essentially “pulling the rug out” from under the creatures. At night, the groggy jellyfish were slower to react and swim to the new bottom than in the day. And when the team disturbed the jellyfish by pulsing currents of water over them, the animals were less active the next day—as if having to recuperate from sleep loss.
Deprivation studies also point to sleep’s metabolic role. Sehgal has found fruit flies carrying a mutation that reduces their sleep are less able to metabolize nitrogen, which means they may have trouble breaking down and rebuilding proteins and processing waste. The result is, Sehgal’s team reported on 2 October on bioRxiv. “When we are sleep-deprived, it’s not just brain function that is affected,” she says.
Eventually, with the help of magnetic stirrers in the tubs, they were able to keep the sponges healthy enough that they started to contract—about once every 3 hours. That was exciting, Joiner says, because it gave the researchers a reliable behavior they could monitor for sleep-related changes.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: TMZ - 🏆 379. / 59 Read more »
NPR Cookie Consent and Choices
Source: NPRHealth - 🏆 144. / 63 Read more »
Source: Mynorthwest - 🏆 438. / 53 Read more »
Source: Fashionista_com - 🏆 474. / 51 Read more »
Source: njdotcom - 🏆 282. / 63 Read more »
Source: etnow - 🏆 696. / 51 Read more »