Science: Is your sleep quality up to standard?

Introduction

Multiple lines of evidence suggest that dopamine is involved in the regulation of sleep: drugs targeting dopamine signaling pathways can effectively regulate wakefulness; eliminating dopamine can reduce the duration of rapid eye movement sleep in mice; dopamine receptor type 2 (Drd2) agonists can promote rapid eye movement sleep

In the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the "Healthy China" development strategy was put forward.

The Secret of Alternating Sleep Cycles: Dopamine Initiates REM Sleep

Recently, the research team of Takeshi Sakurai from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, based on the GRAB-DA dopamine fluorescent probe technology, revealed that dopamine acts on neurons expressing dopamine receptor D2 (Drd2) in the amygdala, which can induce rapid eye movement sleep, indicating that dopamine Signals play a key role in initiating REM sleep and provide the neuronal basis for the generation of sleep cycles

Figure 1 Research results (Source: Science)

GRAB-DA is a dopamine fluorescent probe that records the dynamics of the system through optical fiber to observe the sleep-wake phase in mice under the basolateral amygdala (BLA), nucleus accumbens (NAc), and internal prefrontal cortex (mPFC) nuclei Concentrations of dopamine in the lateral thalamic area (LHA) region

①In the BLA area, the non-REM sleep period transitions to the REM sleep period, and the dopamine level rises briefly and decreases during the REM sleep period;

②In NAc, dopamine levels increased during the transition from non-REM sleep to REM sleep, and fluctuated slightly higher on average during REM sleep;

③ In the mPFC and LHA regions, during the transition from non-REM sleep to REM sleep, there was little change in dopamine levels and a significant decrease during REM sleep

①In the non-REM sleep period, light-activated dopamine neurons in the BLA region promoted the mice to enter REM sleep briefly, indicating that the dopamine signal in the BLA region plays an important role in the mouse entering the REM sleep period;

②During non-REM sleep, light inhibited dopamine type 2 receptor (Drd2)-positive neurons in the BLA region, which promoted mice to enter REM sleep briefly

Figure 2.

The "China Sleep Research Report (2022)" shows that in the past 10 years, the per capita sleep time in China has been reduced from 8.

1.

With the continuous improvement of sleep health awareness, more and more consumers are willing to pay for high-quality sleep, and the sleep aid economic market is booming, and various sleep aid products have emerged as the times require

The growing demand for sleep has also driven the rise of market segments.

2.

Today's fast-paced and stressful social life will inevitably lead to increasingly severe sleep problems.
At the same time, the raging of the new coronavirus has made social emotions relatively tense.
In this environment, sleep problems are even more prominent
.
Therefore, sleep problems will occupy a more prominent position in health management in modern life, and the gradual modernization of social life will also prompt Chinese people to pay more attention to sleep health
.
Long-term unhealthy sleep is likely to induce various other diseases, and timely drug treatment is required.
Therefore, the potential of pharmaceutical health care products is worth looking forward to.
Sleep drugs and health care product-related companies are expected to usher in market dividends
.

The symptoms of insomnia in some people are caused by other mental diseases.
At this time, it cannot be treated only as a sleep problem.
It may even involve the need for drugs for other mental diseases.
Only symptomatic treatment can effectively solve the sleep problem
.
At present, the clinical drugs for the treatment of insomnia mainly include benzodiazepines? Receptor agonists (BZRAs), melatonin receptor agonists, orexin receptor antagonists, and antidepressants with hypnotic effects
.
BZRAs are classified as benzodiazepines? Drugs (BZDs) and non-benzodiazepines? Non-BZDs, the sales of these two types of drugs are increasing; Melatonin receptor agonists are also favored by consumers, and agomelatine is used more, and its sales volume and sales are both Showing a rapid growth trend; antidepressants have a sedative effect, so they also have a certain sleep aid effect, coupled with the increasing number of depression groups, they also have great potential for development
.
Therefore, at present, sleep aids will be promising
.
In addition, the market of sleep aids and health care products in China is in the initial stage of development, and the penetration rate is expected to increase rapidly
.

Original source:

Hasegawa E, Miyasaka A, Sakuray K, et al.
Rapid eye movement sleep is initiated by basolateral amygdala dopamine signaling in mice .
Science.
2022 Mar4;375(6584):994-1000.
doi: 10.
1126/science.
abl6618.
Epub 2022 Mar 3.
PMID: 35239361.