Cramming in extra hours of shut-eye may not make up for those lost pulling all-nighters, new research indicates.
The widely held idea that you can pay back a sizeable "sleep debt" with long naps later on seems to be a myth.
Long-term sleep deprivation saps the brain of power even after days of recovery sleep. And that could be a sign of lasting brain injury.
They let them snooze, then woke them up for short periods and for long ones.
hen the scientists looked at their brains -- more specifically, at a bundle of nerve cells they say is associated with alertness and cognitive function, the locus coeruleus.
They found damage and lots of it.
The mice lose 25% of these neurons.
This is how the scientists think it happened.
When the mice lost a little sleep, nerve cells reacted by making more of a protein, called sirtuin type 3, to energize and protect them.
But when losing sleep became a habit, that reaction shut down. After just a few days of "shift work" sleep, the cells start dying off at an accelerated pace.
The discovery that long-term sleep loss can result in a loss of brain cells is a first.
"No one really thought that the brain could be irreversibly injured from sleep loss,"
They hope their research will result in medicines that will help people working odd hours cope with the consequences of irregular sleep.
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