Sleep quality matters and not quantity, says study
Washington, March 21: According to researchers at UC San Francisco, people who are gifted with genes that pack the benefits of slumber into an efficient time window, show psychological resistance to neurodegenerative conditions that may fight off neurological disease.
The findings of the study were published in the journal 'iScience'. "There's a belief that everyone needs eight hours of sleep, but our work to date confirms that the number of sleep people need differs based on genetics," said neurologist Louis Ptacek, MD, one of the senior authors on the study.
For over a decade, Ptacek and co-senior author, Ying-Hui Fu, Ph.D., both members of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, have been studying people with Familial Natural Short Sleep (FNSS), the ability to function fully on -- and have a preference for -- four to six hours of sleep a night. They've shown that it runs in families and, thus far have identified five genes across the genome that play a role in enabling this efficient sleep. There are still many more FNSS genes to find, the researchers said.
Also Read | India logs 1,549 fresh Covid-19 cases, 31 deaths in last 24 hours
This study tested Fu's hypothesis that elite sleep can be a shield against neurodegenerative disease. Her ideas contrast somewhat with current thinking that, for many people, lack of sleep can accelerate neurodegeneration. The difference, Fu said, is that with FNSS, the brain accomplishes its sleep tasks in a shorter time. In other words, less time spent efficiently sleeping may not equate to a lack of sleep.
The team chose to look at mouse models of Alzheimer's disease because that condition is so prevalent, said Fu. They bred mice that had both short-sleep genes and genes that predisposed them to Alzheimer's and found that their brains developed much less of the hallmark aggregates associated with dementia. To confirm their findings, they repeated the experiment using mice with a different short-sleep gene and another dementia gene and saw similar results.
Also Read | India, Australia to hold bilateral summit on March 21
"Sleep problems are common in all diseases of the brain," she said. "This makes sense because sleep is a complex activity. Many parts of your brain have to work together for you to fall asleep and to wake up. When these parts of the brain are damaged, it makes it harder to sleep or get quality sleep."
Their hope is that within the next decade, they'll have helped facilitate new treatments that allow people with brain disorders to get a better night's rest.
-PTC News
