For the more than 70 million Americans who suffer from chronic sleep disorders, wouldn’t it be great if getting a better night’s sleep was as simple as turning on or off a switch?
While we are years or decades away from that in humans, the latest research from John Hopkins Medical Center shows that a particular gene called Lhx6 can be turned on or off in mice to produce better sleep. This turning on and off of genes is called “gene expression” and it is something our bodies naturally do to regulate how proteins are made. This, in turn, determines how cells function. Epigenetic research is a rapidly growing field which studies how our behaviors and environment can cause changes in the way our genes work.
Regulating Sleep in Mice
In the epigenetic research at John Hopkins, researchers first isolated the Lhx6 gene. They then found that turning it “on” made mice go to sleep, and turning this gene “off” kept the mice awake. If the Lhx6 gene was removed completely, the mice slept substantially less. The Lhx6 genes are found in cells within the hypothalmus, which oversees sleep and basic functions like hunger and thirst. These cells appear to play a strong role in sleep, but not in hunger or mood.
Applying These Findings to People
The principal investigator for this research, Dr. Seth Blackshaw, says future research will focus on whether the Lhx6 gene plays a similar role in humans and whether the related cells lose their function in people with chronic sleep disorders. Researchers will also investigate how these cells may differ in older adults, whose sleep architecture changes with age, resulting in less efficient sleep.
“Modulating the activity of these cells could allow scientists to selectively promote sleep or wakefulness.”
Learn More About Age-Related Sleep Changes
As promising as this research is, it doesn’t help people today who can’t get a good night’s sleep. If you are one of those chronic undersleepers, I hope you will join me for an upcoming webinar I will deliver as part of Stanford’s Healthy Living Program. Dr. Laura Maphis and I will co-present Sleep & Insomnia: Age-Related Changes and Remedies on August 13th at 12 noon PT.