Why do you sleep longer after staying up late?

a third of a person's life is spent in sleep. Once sleep disorders may affect physical and mental health, leading to cognitive impairment of the brain, decreased immunity and so on. So how exactly is sleep regulated? Why do you sleep better after staying up late? A recent study by Chinese scientists gives the answer.The research team of Xu Min of the Center for Brain Science and Intelligent Technology Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, The Shanghai Brain Science and Brain Research Center, in collaboration with the research team of Li Weilong of the School of Life Sciences of Peking University and the Beijing University-Tsinghua Joint Center for Life Sciences, found that glutamate-energy neurons in the pre-brain region of the substrate play an important role in regulating the accumulation of sleep stress.The study was recently published online in Science, one of the world's leading academic journals. This study further reveals the neural loop mechanism of sleep steady-state regulation and provides an important reference for exploring the treatment of sleep disorders.The classical sleep regulation model holds that the regulation of sleep is divided into two aspects, circadian rhythm and sleep stability.Among them, the circadian rhythm controls the transition of sleep and wake through the inner biological clock, and controls the time of sleep awakening through the day.Sleep steady state, is mainly regulated by sleep pressure, control the body to obtain a certain amount of sleep. According to Xu Min, a researcher at the Center for Brain Science and Intelligent Technology Excellence and Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the most central feature of sleep behavior is sleep-stabilization regulation.“ We feel sleepy because sleep stress increases as we stay awake, and this stress is gradually removed during sleep. The sleep-stabilizing system works when sleep is disturbed, for example, staying up late and sleeping more 'scented' and for longer periods of time. Xu Min said.In the past, the mainstream theory holds that "adenosine" participates in the process of sleep steady-state regulation, and its accumulation in a sober state leads to the production of "difficulty". Accordingly, the reason why drinking coffee is that caffeine, the main ingredient of coffee, can block the binding of adenosine with its receptors to promote sobriety.Xu Min told reporters that the substrate foremost brain is considered to be an important brain region in which adenosine participates in sleep stabilization regulation, and previous studies have shown that local neural loops in this area are involved in the regulation of sleep awakening.So how does neuron activity regulate adenosine release? The problem is unclear to scientists and limits the in-depth analysis of the mechanisms that regulate sleep awakening. This is also the focus of the research team's research.According to Li Weilong, a researcher at Peking University, his team spent more than three years developing a new genetically coded adenosine probe in order to detect high spatial-ion resolution of extracellular adenosine concentrations in the pre-brain region of the substrate during the sleep awakening cycle.With the "sharp" adenosine probe, the researchers found in mouse trials that glutamate-energy neurons were involved in regulating the accumulation of extracellular adenosine.Specifically, the activity of glutamate-energy neurons in the pre-brain region of the substrate, while promoting the body's sobriety, can stimulate the release of adenosine, and cause an increase in sleep stress, leading to awakening to sleep transition. Accordingly, the specific destruction of these neurons can significantly reduce the accumulation of adenosine, resulting in a significant increase in wake-up time in mice.“ These results suggest that glutamate-energy neurons in the pre-brain region of the substrate are a key node in regulating sleep stress and may be a potential target for the treatment of sleep disorders. Xu Min said.According to him, the study of sleep regulation can be divided into two "schools": one is from the perspective of the neural loop to study the regulation of sleep awakening in different brain regions, and the other is from the genetic molecules to study the regulation of sleep stability. Great progress has been made in both directions over the past few decades. However, the research of these two directions is basically independent of each other.This time, the Chinese research team combined the two directions. To the researchers' surprise, they also found that neurons that maintain and promote animal awakening, and neurons that cause increased sleep stress, may be the same group of neurons.Of course, Xu Min also said that the study also has some limitations, the study is based on mouse models, there are species differences between humans and mice. In addition, although this group of neurons in the pre-brain region of the substrate can be a potential target for clinical treatment of sleep disorders, researchers do not currently have the tools to non-invasion-specific regulation of these neurons. “ The neural mechanism of sleep regulation is very complex, and in the future, we plan to further determine the universality of the above-mentioned regulatory mechanism on the basis of current research. This will help finally unlock the answer to the ultimate question of why we need sleep, Xu said. (China Youth Daily)