Every time you wake up naturally at 6 o’clock in the morning, when you wanted to sleep in, you remember your youthful years during which you could sleep for eleven hours in a row without your sleep not be impacted. Today, you struggle to fall asleep, you wake up in the middle of the night. In short, the more time passes, the more you sleep badly. And in the dock, we find age. “More than half of people over 65 complain of quality of their sleep« , highlighted Louis of Leceaa professor at Stanford University in the AFP. This is the observation made by a study conducted by a team of American researchers. To understand why the quality of sleep decreased over time, the researchers studied the circuits of the brain. They were particularly interested in hypocrétinesneurotransmitters produced by part of the neurones.
Neurotransmitters involved
Those neurotransmitters would be the main cause of our poor quality of sleep. Indeed, they would deteriorate over time, resulting in narcolepsy. In essence: the more hypocretins we have, the better we sleep. “The quality of sleep decreases with age, however, mechanisms underlying remain elusive. We found that hyperexcitable hypocretin/orexin neurons drive the fragmentation sleep during aging ». To carry out their research, the team of researchers used light to stimulate specific neurons in old and young mice. Results ? Older mice lost approximately 38 % of hypocretins.
The positive point of this study certainly lies in the discovery of the importance of this neurotransmitter for having a quality sleep. This discovery could therefore make it possible to develop treatments for people with sleep disorders. Towards the end of sleeping pills? We hope so.
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