Sneaky sleep

You know what someone looks like when they are asleep, don’t you? There are the closed eyes for a start, then there’s the lack of response, the open the mouth, the drool, and the occasional bodily eructation. We all seem prepared to accept that someone doing these things are engaged in “sleep” but now new research suggests that someone may appear to be awake when parts of their brain are in fact, nodding off.

It has previously been thought that sleep and waking were quite unified states. That is, the slow waves that appear in the brain during non-REM sleep were not thought to feature during wakefulness. What this research has found though is that this is not entirely true.

The researchers monitored brain activity in rats who were kept awake for longer and longer periods. By recording brain activity in many small clusters of neurons the researchers found a fascinating thing. That thing was that while the rats were ostensibly awake, small patches of neurons were going offline. In other words, parts of the brain were sneaking a nap while the brain as a whole was “awake”.

We know from bitter experience that what we call a “micro-sleep” can occur when people are at the wheel of the car possibly with dire results. This phenomenon of though of parts of the brain napping occurs before micro-sleep while we still seem alert. Even when these sneaky brain naps were occurring the overall EEG pattern of the brain indicated wakefulness.

Even though we can’t observe a change in people while these localised sleep episodes are happening, there are behavioural consequences.

If you have ever put your keys in your underwear drawer or put the cereal box back in the refrigerator then you have probably been the victim of a tired brain region that is taking a quick nap. Equally you might drop something or miss it when you reach out for it, all because a few neurons have gone offline for a few moments.

The authors of the study refer to these brief neural shut-downs as a “cortical blink” but whatever they are called they can be enough to change behaviour. So if you are sleep deprived, even if you appear alert be aware that parts of your brain may be catching some sneaky sleep.

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