Circadian Rhythms Refresh the Brain

As everybody knows, sleep is important. When we don't get enough sleep we feel slower mentally, but when we get the right amount we feel sharp and on top of the task at hand. Now the normal person might say its because their eyes are heavy, but there is a deeper neurological process that causes these things. Dr. Emily Willingham in her article, "Sleep Deprivation Shuts Down Production of Essential Brain Proteins", focuses on the synapses and what occurs when our "clock" genes are not as they should be. 

Where these aforementioned genes primarily work is in the synapses. While working in the synapses prior to sleep, the genes are telling the cell to make proteins to help the synapse grow. One might ask, "How then does sleep play a role if the genes are active prior to sleep?". While the genes do work without sleep, they work at a much lower rate and are highly ineffective when one is sleep deprived. All the genes are doing is preparing the correct machinery to grow its synapses, not actually building the synapses itself. Later, Dr. Willingham talked about how, what she called, "sleep pressures" are the final step before the proteins become active.

Later in the article, we learn that the genes actually have two functions during the sleep wake cycle. Those two functions occur right before you go to sleep and right before you wake up. When falling asleep, the proteins shift their focus to building more proteins to help the synapse grow, but when waking, the proteins change their function from building to helping the synapse function. The researchers knew this was related to those "clock" genes, because when they looked at protein activity in regular mice compared to KO mice, which had deleted "clock" genes, they saw a difference. The regular mice had much higher protein activity in and around the synapse while the KO mice had little to none. To go along with the sleep wake cycle, proteins are being produced the most in the late evening and the early morning. This goes along with the idea that they have different functions at sleeping and waking.

The topic of sleep and total body function has always been something that is extremely interesting to me, and I never really understood how it worked. I always knew that when I don't get enough sleep I have a more difficult time functioning. Now it is known to me that not only do circadian rhythms play a role, but the genes and proteins that they produce. While sleeping is important to build the synapses and create more connections, waking up naturally helps the synapses function at a higher and more efficient rate, therefore making one more alert throughout the day. 



https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sleep-deprivation-shuts-down-production-of-essential-brain-proteins/