Electrons are all you need
It’s quantum particles all
The way down.
Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
181–190 of 325 posts
Re: Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
#182So the ancient mystery of why we need sleep might have just been answered. The paper shows that cell‑autonomous mild uncoupling in Drosophila sleep‑inducing neurons -- via Ucp4A/Ucp4C -- keeps the flies awake by lowering mitochondrial Δp and therefore electron leak. This suggests a biochemical rationale for sleep -- which is postponed by the uncoupler. That form of pharmacological manipulation is also a very local in…
I understand some of these words. Explain like I am 15?
The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. Sometimes that powerhouse needs to be tidied up.
Re: Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
#183Re: Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
#184So the ancient mystery of why we need sleep might have just been answered. The paper shows that cell‑autonomous mild uncoupling in Drosophila sleep‑inducing neurons -- via Ucp4A/Ucp4C -- keeps the flies awake by lowering mitochondrial Δp and therefore electron leak. This suggests a biochemical rationale for sleep -- which is postponed by the uncoupler. That form of pharmacological manipulation is also a very local in…
Piggybacking off this, for a more general reason for sleep:
"My definition would be as follows: sleep evolved as a species-specific response to a 24-hour world. During sleep – a period of physical inactivity – individuals avoid movement within an environment to which they are poorly adapted, but then use this time to undertake essential housekeeping functions demanded by their physiology."
From Life Time by Russell Foster. Still one of the most lucid and well-written books on sleep I've ever read.
Re: Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably nothing initially. Then over years of us and accumulated data, people will realize that they can't game a complex system that the body needs like sleep with a simple drug, and those "healthy" wakefulness drugs will either be banned or face lots of controversy.
That's almost exactly what people said about the appetite -- about the biochemical pathways which govern hunger, which are known to be massively redundant and overlapping. But then Ozempic was released and it turned out there was a shortcut after all. Which is not to say that such things are necessarily "healthy" or desirable, just that you can't rule out that biochemically-modifiable characteristics, however complex…
That's a pretty poor comparison. A drug that makes you not need sleep is more like a drug that prevents you from starving to death without eating.
Re: Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Workaholism is always just manifesting underlying psychical issues, be it some form of OCD, deep unhappiness with one's life and escapism from emptiness or similar. Such state manifests in many destructive behaviors, which then like in case of sleep create their own forces of destruction. One can't escape psychology, one thing no school taught me (and they should have since we all deal with this in some way! plus its…
I'd be careful with saying that is "always" the case. What about people who are deeply passionate about their mission and chose to devote their life to it?
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Re: Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Speculative: Gentle mitochondrial uncouplers that cross the BBB very well, possibly in conjunction with elamipretide, MitoQ, MitoTEMPO, or something similar.
Would these also have a thermogenesis effect? I used that hyper deadly illegal one (can’t remember the name, very yellow) several years ago and got a sauna in my torso (shredded abs too) but didn’t notice any perceptual energy balance change.
Yeah, probably.
DNP (2,4-Dinitrophenol) is the stuff you took. It's reported to cross the BBB, but it's so toxic, with such a narrow therapeutic window, that most people report feeling pretty sick on it.
Re: Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
But we're sleepy every night regardless of how much or how little we have done mentally during the day. Doing more work (mental or physical) than usual will make us feel more tired, but the basic need for the 24hr sleep cycle is there regardless. We fundamentally sleep at night based on circadian rhythm (evolved from earth's 24hr day), not based on activity level. We do also feel tired after a strenuous activity, but…
The body expends 2000 calories of energy (via mitochondria) simply to be alive, even if you lie in a hospital bed and are unconscious. You do a marathon’s amount of work every day. You need to sleep to deal with that.
We're also alive when we're asleep ... The difference between being asleep or awake lying on the couch seems to have more to do with reduced/different mental activity than energy usage.
Being unconscious, or in a coma, in a hospital bed is more akin to being asleep, which is why you can be in a coma for years without dying.
Re: Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
#189I’m drawing a connection here between red light therapy being most beneficial if done in the morning.
Might mitochondria only be able to benefit from “recharging” in a recharge state?
Biochemists?
Re: Sleep all comes down to the mitochondria
#190So the ancient mystery of why we need sleep might have just been answered. The paper shows that cell‑autonomous mild uncoupling in Drosophila sleep‑inducing neurons -- via Ucp4A/Ucp4C -- keeps the flies awake by lowering mitochondrial Δp and therefore electron leak. This suggests a biochemical rationale for sleep -- which is postponed by the uncoupler. That form of pharmacological manipulation is also a very local in…
Does it explain why we need sleep? My read was it explains why we get sleepy.