Does this mean we may have a trainable sleep muscle yet to be discovered? 😊
"Previous work has pointed to diet—including protein intake—as one potential factor influencing how soundly we sleep. A study published Wednesday (March 22) in Cell adds evidence to the role of food by reporting that a protein-rich diet decreases the arousability of flies and mice. ..."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• Enrichment of dietary proteins can make flies and mice less arousable from sleep
• Dietary proteins activate cells in the fly gut to secrete the peptide CCHa1
• CCHa1 signals to brain dopamine neurons to modulate sensory responsiveness
• Different sensory modalities can be gated by independent mechanisms during sleep
Summary
Suppressing sensory arousal is critical for sleep, with deeper sleep requiring stronger sensory suppression. The mechanisms that enable sleeping animals to largely ignore their surroundings are not well understood. We show that the responsiveness of sleeping flies and mice to mechanical vibrations is better suppressed when the diet is protein rich. In flies, we describe a signaling pathway through which information about ingested proteins is conveyed from the gut to the brain to help suppress arousability. Higher protein concentration in the gut leads to increased activity of enteroendocrine cells that release the peptide CCHa1. CCHa1 signals to a small group of dopamine neurons in the brain to modulate their activity; the dopaminergic activity regulates the behavioral responsiveness of animals to vibrations. The CCHa1 pathway and dietary proteins do not influence responsiveness to all sensory inputs, showing that during sleep, different information streams can be gated through independent mechanisms."
Graphical abstract
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