Sleep is a commodity that many do not get enough of, but a recent discovery in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep could help individuals feel well rested. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Sleep is a commodity that many do not get enough of, but a recent discovery in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep could help individuals feel well rested. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Sleep is a commodity that people usually do not get enough of. The idea of REM sleep, the time of sleep where dreams occur, has been an enigma to many scientists and researchers. There has been much mystery around what neurons are responsible/cause REM sleep and how to study such neurons. A recent breakthrough in brain technology might finally provide answers to these two questions (1).

Yu Hayashi and his research team at the University of Tsukuba’s International Institution for Integrative Sleep Medicine (WPI-IIIS) and Shigeyoshi Itohara of RIKEN Brain Science Institute recently discovered that the common cells associated with REM sleep, known as pons, are not native to the area of the brain dedicated to sleep and are instead from a distant part of the brain called the rhombic lip, which is not associated with REM sleep (1). Through this discovery, the research team reasoned that if these rhombic lip cells could isolated, they could tamper with them and artificially increase the length of REM sleep (1).

Once the research team identified these rhombic lip cells, they then further examined the role of REM sleep in the sleep cycle. They compared and contrasted the electroencephalogram (EEG) brain records of mice during quiet, desynchronized REM and large, slow waves of non-REM (NREM) sleep. By using a system known as Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADD), they were able to shorten or elongate REM sleep and were surprised to discover that the length of NREM was also altered, indicating a possible correlation between the two (1,2).

With this breakthrough in examining REM sleep, researchers hope to determine the evolutionary role that REM sleep possesses in mammals. However, while this research does seem promising, the scientists acknowledge that laboratory mice do not have measurable dreams. This phenomenon could still, however, be of great use to understanding the relationship between REM sleep and human beings.

References

  1. Yu Hayashi, Mitsuaki Kashiwagi, Kosuke Yasuda, Reiko Ando, Mika Kanuka, Kazuya Sakai, and Shigeyoshi Itohara.Cells of a common developmental origin regulate REM/non-REM sleep and wakefulness in mice. Science, 22 October 2015 DOI: 1126/science.aad1023
  2. University of Tsukuba. (2015, October 22). New insights into REM sleep crack an enduring mystery.ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 27, 2015 from sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151022141800.htm