Want to rebound from sleep loss? It’s in your genes

Loss of sleep can severely impair our health and wellbeing.

But can this lack of sleep be reversed?

Very little is known about the ability to recover from sleep loss – until now.

Scientists from UCLA have found a gene outside the brain, which controls the ability to recover from sleep deprivation.

Sleep regulation processes is considered to be controlled entirely by the brain mainly because of the strong behavioural manifestations of sleep.

But this research provides the first evidence that a biological clock in the muscle can communicate with the brain.

When they restored the gene in the skeletal muscle the mice were able to recover from sleep deficit but when the scientists restored Bmal1 in the brain, the mice could not restore from sleep deprivation.

This is exciting news for people who lose sleep because of certain factors such as a crying baby or a job which does not allow normal sleep cycles.

The researchers found that in turning off Bmal1 – a gene which turns other genes on and off – in the brain and body of mice, using molecular genetic technique, impaired their ability to rebound from sleep deprivation.

When they restored the gene in the skeletal muscle the mice were able to recover from sleep deficit but when the scientists restored Bmal1 in the brain, the mice could not restore from sleep deprivation.

When the scientists increased Bmal1 in the skeletal muscles, the mice were able to tolerate more sleep loss.

This shows that Bmal1 is responsible for the ability to recover from sleep loss in mice.

The researchers also kept the mice awake for 24 hours in one part for the study and measured brain activity with an electroencephalogram and found that the brain activity revealed that mice with additional Bmal1 in the skeletal muscle – six times more than normal – were less sleepy than the mice without additional Bmal1.

The mice with increased Bmal1 slept less hours than the other mice during the 24 hours following sleep deprivation.

When the researchers remove Bmal1 from the skeletal muscle they found that the mice were sleepier and it impaired their ability to recover from sleep loss.

The scientists believe that there are no negative consequences in increasing Bmal1 in the muscle.

Sleep deprivation can have negative consequences for our health and can increase the risk of  heart disease, stroke, diabetes, infectious diseases and other illnesses but by having resistance to sleep loss and being able to rebound from it, may reduce the risk of these diseases.

Watch this space for more on future research on how your genes can help you rebound from sleep loss.

Source: eLife