Sleep is a fact of life; and without it, animals (including humans) cannot survive. Yet, millions of Americans; and quite frankly millions world-wide, have trouble sleeping. Multi-billions of dollars are spent every year in the pharmaceutical market for insomnia alone. This has led to vast amounts of research on sleep. Recently, the scientists at Stanford Universities School of Medicine believe they have stumbled upon something. The scientists wanted to test what effect suppressing and exciting the reward-system of the brain would have on the sleep-wake cycle. They knew that the ventral tegmental area, or VTA, of the brain is home to the "origin of numerous dopamine-secreting nerve fibers". So, they decided to single out this portion of the brain to suppress and excite these dopamine-secreting nerves; and monitor this on mice. Their results were exciting.
They ran various tests to watch how the mice's behavior would change when the VTA was suppressed, excited and as a control; left alone. They discovered that suppressing the VTA would cause the mice to sleep much more often. In fact; they would sleep through numerous events that would cause the un-aided mice to immediately wake-up. These events included food, female mice, and even fox urine; which would normally induce fear and panic in the mice.Alternatively; the VTA excited mice would ignore their normal sleep cycles and remain awake for long periods of time. It would even awaken mice immediately if the VTA was excited during sleep.
This exciting discovery could lead to a future in pharmaceutical drugs that would target specific areas of the brain to be suppressed or shut down to aid in sleep. Currently, many sleep-aid drugs shut down the brain in it's entirety; which can have many adverse side-affects. Also, the article stated that it could help in the development of many targeted drugs that could aid in neurological conditions; such as schizophrenia and bi-polar.
I chose this article because it is very exciting news for me. I have been affected by insomnia, restless leg syndrome, and a light form of narcolepsy for much of my life. To say I struggle to sleep and rest at night would be a great understatement. To hear that new research has been made and new and better drugs could be formulated in the future using this research is such exciting news. I hate prescription drugs and have avoided them my adult life. The side-affects were too much. It was great to learn that sleep drugs are non-target and shut down the whole brain; which is why they make you so groggy and light-headed in the morning. I learned that we still have a lot to learn when it comes to mapping out the "circuit" of the brain, but that science is making steps to learn more about it. This is the kind of research that would help millions world-wide; and the type of research I hope to take part in as a career in life.
Joseph Sneddon
Bio 1610-008
I found this article very interesting because my mother has always struggled with sleep and for as long as I can remember has been on some type of prescription or OTC medication to help her with sleeping at night. It seems like they either suppressed the VTA so much the mice could not function or excited it so much they could not sleep. Did they speak about doing further testing to see if they could accomplish a more stable result? -D.B.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't mention a whole lot about further testing: only that there would be more. Typically in the medical research field, there has to be a lot of data compiled before human test trials can begin. According to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development at Tufts University, "it takes an average of 15 years for an experimental drug to go from lab to patient."
DeleteJoseph Sneddon
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DeleteThis article is very interesting. Working in the pharmacy I see many patients with sleep problems and some who take many combinations in hopes of help. This study should provide many people with some much needed help in finding a good way of getting sleep without all of those complicated side effects that some sleep aids have. Hopefully the study is successful enough without its only side effect causing any set back. -D.D.
ReplyDeleteI found your article very hopeful. I have many loved ones that were in military service and due to PTSD suffer from insomnia and difficulty remaining asleep. Do you think that these people would still have dreams/nightmares? are those areas of the brain associated with our sleep patterns?
ReplyDeletea-Wardell
Not only could this be really good for those with insomnia, but it could help reduce the amount of accidents/DUIs that occur because people are taking these sleep aids that shut the whole brain down. In my field (paramedic), I see a lot of people abusing, either on purpose or accidentally, their meds so they can sleep and this could really benefit many on both sides of that. I know my wife would really like to be able to have more restful sleep too. I do not have many problems going to sleep or staying asleep, fortunately. Did the article give a time line for human trials or moving forward with this experiment?
ReplyDelete-Alex G.
Are a lot of these sleep aids addicting? Do people just become so dependent on these drugs that they can no longer sleep without them?
DeleteThat's way cool that you want to go into this for your career! Best of luck. I also have problems sleeping. For some reason I can't finally fall asleep until the early hours of the morning. But, to this day I haven't tried prescription drugs to help me sleep because 1. I don't want to develop a "crutch" that I lean on for the rest of my life and 2. Im afraid of side effects. However, I would definitely be open to trying out a drug that only targets the appropriate part of my brain. Very interesting. -Chad B
ReplyDeleteI thought it was really interesting that sleeping medication shuts down the whole brain. I had no idea that this was the case. I would imagine that by doing this, it would cause a lot of side effects. I have only ever taken a sleeping pill once, and it is a little bit creepy to be able to take a little pill, and have it completely shut down your brain. I think the fact that this new medication would only shut down part of the brain is very valuable. This could potentially help a lot of people.
ReplyDeleteI also had a question. Would these new drugs function in basically the same way as normal sleep-aid drugs, except for the fact that it only shuts down part of the brain instead of the whole thing?
ReplyDeleteI think this is amazing that there is research being developed to aid people who are affected by insomnia. This research of temporarily shutting down part of the brain could also have many other benefits.
ReplyDelete--A.S.