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Credit: Simon Prades
Birds do it. Bees do it. Even animals without central nervous systems do it. And of course babies do it — albeit less than their frazzled parents would like.
But, despite its universality, sleep remains a mysterious process. Indeed, although sleep seems to be crucial for physical and mental well-being, scientists are still trying to work out its biological rationale. Research points to a theory that suggests that the brain needs to ‘reset’ periodically to keep the mind in good operating order — with tantalizing hints that sleep’s effect on the gut might also come in to play.
There’s also progress in treating what is by far the most common sleep disorder: insomnia. The good news is that the past decade has seen the development of a class of drugs that effectively induces sleep without triggering anxiety and other side effects that have plagued previous insomnia therapies. Unfortunately, as our writer discovered, these DORA drugs are difficult to obtain and expensive.
Nature Outlook: Sleep
Not only is getting sufficient sleep satisfying in its own right, but it also has ramifications for health more broadly. Evidence indicates that people who sleep less than six hours per night are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than are people who sleep longer. A theory first proposed more than ten years ago holds that sleep helps the brain to clear out the amyloid and tau proteins that are implicated in this neurodegenerative condition. But in the past year, a fierce scientific debate has arisen about the physiological details of this linkage. The resulting uncertainty has made it more difficult to exploit the sleep–Alzheimer’s correlation to develop strategies to prevent the occurrence of this devastating condition.
Sleep can also help to address a less-severe (and more-common) health issue than dementia: the desire to lose weight. A leading sleep specialist explains how longer sleep leads to people consuming fewer calories and shedding kilograms. And weight loss lowers the risk of obstructive sleep apnoea, in which a person’s breathing during sleep is interrupted, and, in turn, lessens the chances of developing type 2 diabetes.
More from Nature Outlooks
Sleep scientists have no shortage of questions to explore. These include the link between night-time illumination and mood disorders, the disappointing finding that napping might increase the risk of heart disease and the, perhaps self-evident, confirmation that early morning university classes discourage attendance and reduce learning.
We are pleased to acknowledge the financial support of Avadel in producing this Outlook. As always, Nature retains sole responsibility for all editorial content.
