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A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

washingtonpost.com

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Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#51

Post by panic »

ars wrote: post #37

I have my own theory. We sleep because that's when we are logged out of the virtual game that this world is. I'm only semi-serious. But let's work with it. What if we research sleep right until there is nothing left to find out, and we since can't figure out any reason at all for it? Could we use that to postulate for a reason that is non-physical? Spiritual? Virtual reality? Something else?

When you're logged out of a virtual game, nobody can force you to log back in. But you can wake up someone who's sleeping.

Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#52

Post by Aelinsaar »

casion wrote: post #46
Aelinsaar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.consumerreports.org/vitamins-supplements/does-mel...

Note that this does not address quality of sleep or effect on circadian rhythm, both of which are the primary action of melatonin supplements.

Is there some study to indicate that it does?

Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#53

Post by Snesker »

CPLX wrote: post #40
jjallen wrote: post #31

to some of us (ahem, yours truly) the idea that there's a "mystery of sleep" might seem a bit, well, strange. Don't we sleep because we get tired? Quotes like this are typical of the American tendency to be pseudo-proud of being unintelligent, uneducated or apathetic. I'm surprised they included it and disappointed they did. Perhaps to help the readership identify with the columnist? But then again the readers are ac…

It's a rhetorical device. Asking a dumb question and giving a smart answer is sort of a dielectical approach to writing that helps move a narrative along while conveying a bunch of technical information.

What problem does including a narrative when conveying technical information solve? Is it in the reader's interests? Would the reader rather be told the facts simply, or be given a mile of corny, identify-with-me fluff that never works to sit through?

Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#55

Post by figgis »

panic wrote: post #51
ars wrote: post #37

I have my own theory. We sleep because that's when we are logged out of the virtual game that this world is. I'm only semi-serious. But let's work with it. What if we research sleep right until there is nothing left to find out, and we since can't figure out any reason at all for it? Could we use that to postulate for a reason that is non-physical? Spiritual? Virtual reality? Something else?

When you're logged out of a virtual game, nobody can force you to log back in. But you can wake up someone who's sleeping.

That's just the simulation mixing it up. If I am going to use a simulation as an escape it sure as hell is going to be single player.

Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#57

Post by oasisbob »

ninjakeyboard wrote: post #54

It's not a molecule though - it's an ion channel. There is no compound called sandman as I understand this.

The authors refer to the CG8713 gene product as Sandman, which is a single molecule. Flybase associates this gene with a single polypeptide, predicted to be 395 amino acids long [1].

My research skills are rusty, but I found a paper which makes it sound like this channel is probably a heteromer [2].

So yeah, the ion channel is almost certainly composed of more than one subunit (and thus more than one polypeptide, and more than one molecule), but the researchers are focusing on this subunit.

[1] http://flybase.org/reports/FBpp0087858.html [2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17074048

Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#58

Post by jpttsn »

gnaritas wrote: post #15
omgitstom wrote: post #8

"Sleeping animals are incredibly vulnerable to attacks, with no obvious benefit to make up for it — at best, they waste precious hours that could be used finding food or seducing a mate; at worst, they could get eaten." It seems pretty obvious that sleep had an evolutionary advantage to conserve energy when the species couldn't be productive. For example, human sleep during the night because we can't forage / hunt /…

That doesn't seem obvious at all, it presumes sleeping is about conserving energy and that's an unwarranted assumption and baseless assumption. Sleep very well could be a requirement for brains to work they way they do. If you are deprived of sleep you will shortly go crazy; sleep isn't about saving energy. If you see anything that seems obvious, you can bet science already checked that out and moved past it and that…

Science can often be helped by some questioning, esp. from scientists outside the field of study.

Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#59

Post by jpttsn »

jjallen wrote: post #31

to some of us (ahem, yours truly) the idea that there's a "mystery of sleep" might seem a bit, well, strange. Don't we sleep because we get tired? Quotes like this are typical of the American tendency to be pseudo-proud of being unintelligent, uneducated or apathetic. I'm surprised they included it and disappointed they did. Perhaps to help the readership identify with the columnist? But then again the readers are ac…

I agree, it's unappealing.

Quote sounds like something an editor would request, on behalf of the wider readership.

Perhaps a remnant from print newspapers where readers can't be assumed to have picked this exact article.

Re: A molecule called ‘Sandman’ could help solve the ‘mystery of sleep’

#60

Post by vacri »

jjallen wrote: post #31

to some of us (ahem, yours truly) the idea that there's a "mystery of sleep" might seem a bit, well, strange. Don't we sleep because we get tired? Quotes like this are typical of the American tendency to be pseudo-proud of being unintelligent, uneducated or apathetic. I'm surprised they included it and disappointed they did. Perhaps to help the readership identify with the columnist? But then again the readers are ac…

Frankly, I find the neuroscientist that pretends that we have no clue as to why we sleep to be far more obnoxious. While we don't know the full picture, we have plenty of knowledge of things that sleep is for.

I did a neuropsych degree in the early-mid 90s and worked as a sleep tech in the late 90s - we knew certain things then, so it's pretty obnoxious to have this guy come along 20 years later and pretend it's a great big mystery. There's definitely stuff we don't know, but plenty of stuff we do.

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