Image illustrating the concept of the sleep homeostat. Credit: Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour/ University of Oxford
Oxford University researchers have discovered what causes a switch to flip in our brains and wake us up. Sleep is governed by 2 systems – the circadian clock and the sleep homeostat. While the circadian clock is quite well understood, very little is known about the sleep homeostat. Professor Gero Miesenböck explained: ‘The circadian clock allows us to anticipate predictable changes in our environment that are caused by the Earth’s rotation. As such, it makes sure we do our sleeping when it hurts us least, but it doesn’t speak to the mystery of why we need to sleep in the first place.
‘That explanation will likely come from understanding the second controller – slee...
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