Sugar makes mice sleepy
Many parents think their kids get over hyperactive after eating candy or other sweets. But sugar may actually cause drowsiness, not hyperactivity. That's the conclusion of a bran-new study in mice.
"We all experience this strong feeling of drowsiness after a very large meal," says Christophe Varin. As a neuroscientist at Lyon Neuroscience Research Center and ESPCI ParisTech in France, he studies the brain. His team up's new research immediately suggests that dough is the reasonableness that post-meal naps are often irresistible.
In their study, Varin and his colleagues injected glucose — a type of monosaccharide — directly into the brains of mice. This mimicked what happens aft a big dinner. Meals, particularly those loaded with carbohydrates, raise sugar levels in the brain. Carbohydrates admit sugars and starches, such as those that serve As the building blocks of shelve sugar, fruit juice, flours, rice and potatoes.
The scientists injected the glucose into an sphere of the brain called the VLPO. It stands for ventrolateral preoptic core (VEN-troh-Latisimus dorsi-er-ul PRE-op-tik NU-klee-us). The researchers already knew that VLPO nerve cells were sleep pushers. In fact, various chemicals that gestate messages within the brain are identified to pack the nerve cells' sleep-inducing activity. That promotes vigilance. The refreshing study shows that glucose has the opposite effect. IT amps up these sleep-promoting cells.
In the world-class two hours after the glucose injection, mice fell into a deep quietus, called slow-undulate sleep. This is diametric from a typewrite of log Z's called rapid oculus movement, or REM. (Rapid eye movement sleep is when most dreams occur.) Mice that got the sugar injection reached inexplicable sleep faster and stayed there longer than mice injected with a nonsugar solution, the team up found.
VLPO nerve cells can directly sense the glucose in their neighborhood, other experiments revealed. And the more glucose the face cells heard, the more they fired their sleep-inducement signals. The scientists reported their findings July 8 in the Journal of Neuroscience.
The idea that sugar can lead to drowsiness may not lonesome surprise parents. Information technology also might shock the makers of Department of Energy drinks. These beverages frequently are chock-full of dough. And they can lead story to immediate surges in alertness. But concluded longer periods of clock, malodourous-sugar drinks, at least those with little caffeine, might actually advertize sleepiness. Scientists showed that in a 2006 trial published in Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Research. The new study may help explain why a sugar flack made participants in that earlier read inferior alert.
There Crataegus laevigata be a good reason to sleep after a high-loot repast, says Denis Burdakov. He is a neuroscientist at the Crick Institute in London, England. Sleeping soon after eating ensures that a person or animal sticks finale to a good food source, he says. "Moving less when carbohydrate is around makes introductory selection sense."
Scientists questionable that people make spunk cells mistakable to those in the rodents' VLPO. More experiments are requisite, however, to reveal if much weak cells also respond similarly to sugar.
Power Run-in
(for more about Magnate Words, sink in here )
caffeine A stimulant, which activates the nervous system and heart. The leaves, seeds and fruits of many plants contain caffeine. In coffee plants and tea bushes, caffeine Acts atomic number 3 a natural pesticide. IT will kill or harm insects that attempt to dine on the plant. Caffeine is also toxic to some types of plants, bacteria — even frogs and dogs.
carbohydrates Any of a large mathematical group of compounds occurring in foods and sustenance tissues, including sugars, starch and cellulose. They turn back hydrogen and oxygen in the same ratio as water (2:1) and typically can be broken down to release vigour in the animal body.
glucose A simple sugar that is an important energy source in living organisms. It is half of the molecule that makes leading table sugar (also familiar as sucrose).
neuron or nerve cell Any of the impulse-conducting cells that comprise the brain, rachi and nervous system. These specialised cells transmit information to other neurons in the form of electric signals.
neuroscience Science that deals with the structure or function of the wi and other parts of the nervous system. Researchers in this field are known as neuroscientists.
Paradoxical sleep sleep A period of eternal sleep that takes its name for the rapid eye movement, OR REM, that occurs. People dream during REM eternal sleep, merely their bodies can't move. In non-REM sleep late, breathing and brain activity slow, but hoi polloi can still move about.
slow-wave sleep As wel identified as deep sopor or non-REM sleep. This is the largely dreamless present of sleep when a person or animal gets the most rest.
amylum A soft white material made by each green plants. Information technology's a relatively long atom ready-made from linking collectively very much of smaller, identical building blocks — all of them glucose, a simple wampu. Plants and animals use glucose as an energy generator. Plants memory that glucose, in the form of starch, as a reserve provision of energy. Animals that go through amylum can break down the amylum into glucose molecules to extract the useful energy.
ventolateral preoptic nucleus A tiny area deep within the brain, located roughly in the center of the head. It promotes sleep by decreasing arousal, or sensitivity to stimuli. When we fall asleep, this region of the wi releases chemicals. Called neurotransmitters, these chemicals suppress action in some other areas of the brain. That helps diminish arousal, so sounds and unusual stimuli don't easily awake us. Upon waking up, other brain areas send chemicals to the ventrolateral preoptic core group to shut IT down and thereby promote alertness.
0 Response to "Sugar makes mice sleepy"
Post a Comment