Yahoo Lifestyle Sleep deprivation can lead to "irreversible" loss of brain cells
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A new study shows that sustained periods of sleep loss leads to an "irreversible" loss of brain cells.
The research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience showed that sleep loss could be a serious issue for our physical and mental health after studies on mice showed the loss of brain cells to be permanent, and "catch-up" sleep no remedy.
The study was conducted by a team at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine who were investigating chronic sleep loss and its affect on the brain cells involved in keeping the brain alert. They replicated the sleep conditions of a shift worker or someone working long hours by keeping mice awake on a similar time schedule. The data showed that the prolonged lack of sleep (three days in this case) caused 25 percent of brain cells in the brain stem to die. This damage could not be reversed.
Lead author Sigrid Veasey, a professor at the University, noted that while previous studies in humans had shown that attention span and other cognitive functions were severely hampered by lack of sleep (even after "catch-up" sleep), this was the first study to suggest the injury to the brain could be permanent.
"No one really thought that the brain could be irreversibly injured from sleep loss." Dr Veasey said. "This is the first report that sleep loss can actually result in a loss of neurons."
She told BBC News: "This might be in a simple animal but this suggests to us that we are going to have to look very carefully in humans."
Researchers hope that more study into sleep patterns and brain activity will in future yield a medication that can help to protect the brain against the effects of sleep loss.
"If we can show that we can protect the cells and wakefulness, then we're launched in the direction of a promising therapeutic target for millions of shift workers." Dr Veasey said in a Penn Medicine press release.
