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Neuroscience

Sleepy neurons?

Nature volume 472, pages 427–428 (2011)Cite this article

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A study in rats suggests that individual neurons take a nap when the brain is forced to stay awake, and that the basic unit of sleep is the electrical activity of single cortical neurons. See Article p.443

Do you yearn for the simple pleasure of getting a good night's sleep and waking up feeling well-rested? Study after study suggests that, for people in industrial or post-industrial societies, one cost of moving away from the farm is the inability to get as much sleep as one desires. This sleeplessness, coupled with the fact that disruptions to sleep and circadian rhythms have wide-ranging, negative consequences for our health, has led to a new level of concern about our sleepless nights. Indeed, many people regularly take sleeping pills — especially the growing population of over-65-year-olds, for some of whom this has become part of the nightly routine1,2.

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Figure 1: Neuronal activity in the rat brain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Christopher S. Colwell is in the Laboratory of Sleep and Circadian Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90024, USA.,

    Christopher S. Colwell

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  1. Christopher S. Colwell
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Correspondence to Christopher S. Colwell.

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Colwell, C. Sleepy neurons?. Nature 472, 427–428 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/472427a

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