Sleep serves as the brain’s nightly clean-up crew, flushing out harmful oxygen-derived free radicals that accumulate during wakefulness, Chinese scientists have discovered in a landmark study.
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The research published in Cell Metabolism on May 15 deciphers how hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), a reactive by-product of metabolism, acts as a molecular signal to trigger sleep and restore balance in the brain.
By confirming a decades-old hypothesis, the team found that when H₂O₂ levels rise in sleep-regulating neurons, the brain switches to “repair mode,” prompting restorative slumber.
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Can China claim the leadership mantle after the US quits the WHO and Paris Agreement?
Can China claim the leadership mantle after the US quits the WHO and Paris Agreement?
This breakthrough not only solves a long-standing mystery of why sleep is biologically essential but also opens pathways for therapies targeting oxidative stress to combat sleep disorders.
While scientists around the globe have identified some molecular changes that occur in the brain during sleep, Liu Danqian, a researcher from the Shanghai-based Centre for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, an affiliate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who led the study, said this was “the first time” they had fully delineated how a molecule specifically functioned in the brain.
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Just as a person seeks food when they are hungry or water when they are thirsty, this type of instinctive behaviour is known in neuroscience as “homeostatic regulation” – the body’s ability to maintain a stable internal environment.
One mystery scientists have been exploring is what kinds of material changes in the brain trigger homeostatic regulation of sleep, according to Liu.
