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Subscribe to RSSScientists may have found an explanation for all those slip-ups we make when we haven’t gotten enough sleep.
A new study shows that even when we feel wide awake, regions of our brains may be opting to go offline in a sort of rolling blackout similar to what the electric company does when demands for power spike.
Though the study was in rats, its results should be applicable to humans, said Dr. Chiara Cirelli, a co-author on the study and an associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
When it comes to the mechanics of sleeping and waking brains, there isn’t a whole lot of difference between humans and rats, Cirelli said.
To learn what happens in the brains of the sleep deprived, Cirelli and her colleagues wired up the rats’ brains. By implanting electrodes in brain tissue the researchers would then be able to monitor what individual neurons were doing.
Some of the electrodes were positioned deep in the rats’ brains, which means that the experiment will be difficult to duplicate in humans.
The researchers kept the rodents awake long past their “bedtimes,” by dropping fun toys into the rats’ cages. Though they were tired, the rats would continue to play for hours with the novel toys.
As the rats played, the researchers watched what was happening in the rodents’ brains. What they saw surprised them: nerve cells would be sparking one minute and then go completely silent in a kind of nap phase.
You couldn’t tell this was happening by watching the rats playing -- they all looked perfectly normal. But subtle differences showed up when the researchers gave the rats a task to perform.
The rats had been taught to access sugar pellets by reaching through a hole in their cages with just one paw. Getting a pellet through the hole and into the cage takes a lot of concentration and dexterity, Cirelli said. Normally the rats would be able to do this over and over again, only rarely dropping a pellet.
But rats that were sleep-deprived had much less success getting the pellets into their cages. And when researchers watched what was happening in the rats’ brains, they saw that the mistakes happened when nerve cells went offline in the region that controls movement.
The rats weren’t consistently bad at what they were doing -- one minute they’d be able to pull a sugar pellet in and the next they’d slip up. And therein lies the danger of getting too little sleep, Cirelli said.
Think about driving – or air traffic controllers – she said. You might be going along just fine and then need to make a split-second decision when the wrong brain circuits go offline to catnap. The result could be catastrophic: a downed plane or a driver switching into a lane that already has a car in it. And yet another reason to get your Zzzz’s.
Ever had any funny (or scary) slip-ups when your snooze-time was curtailed? Tell us about it, below.
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I was tired one day and I went and picked up some chocolate heart candy I had ordered which was a fund raiser, I had given the person a check but forgot about giving it to her and asked where there was an ATM. I had gone to the ATM, came back and handed the person $20.00 she asked me what it was for and I told her for the candy she said that I already paid, it was quit embarrassing.
Went to work one morning so tired and needed to use the bathroom, walked right into the women's bathroom and stood there, could not figure out why they painted the walls a light orange or why they decided to take out the urinals
I work in a building which requires badges for access to different workspaces. The public elevator, however, is PUBLIC and does not require the badge. One day I was so tired that when going from one floor to another, I stood in front of the elevator button, waving my badge and wondering why on earth the door didn't open. It took me several seconds to realize what I had done, and I looked around to see if anyone saw me. Nobody was in the area, although the guards may have seen on the security monitors.
Lol, reminds me of a time I was going into work in the morning after getting very little sleep, and I was sitting at a stop sign (not light) for a long time waiting for the sign to turn green.
I've done that before.
I've stopped for a green light when lacking sleep and, because no one was around to influence me, I almost started to drive when the light turned red!
Let me see if I understood this article... A scientist performed a study on a rat and concluded that its lack of sleep equated to a lesser ability to finish a task? I want his job - pointing out the obvious. Come on! Who didn't already know that the lack of sleep impedes thought processing and physical activities??!!
Often we assume things to be true just because it seems obvious. But sometimes scientific investigation gives us surprising answers... and like Dave below me says, it's all about the why.
Very true... we wouldn't have known there was an experiment at hand had lack of sleep never been a problem for anyone. The question that scientists love to solve is, like everyone else has mentioned, "WHY?"... in this case, "WHY does lack of sleep cause us to slip up where we would otherwise not".
That's what experiments are for.
This particular experiment is actually very interesting. It opens the table to even more questions. It directly effects our understanding of how the brain works... in this case, it shows us almost exactly HOW the brain is trying to compensate for a lack of something it desperately needs in order to continue functioning. Scientists do not simply say "we need sleep, so we sleep" which would be more of a dictation rather than an attempt to understand. They say, "why do we need sleep... what would happen if we didn't sleep... what is sleep for aside from 'I'm tired so I need to sleep'... what are the benefits of sleep and how much do we need to live healthly intelligent lives?" For example, if these rolling "cell black-outs" did not occur, then in what way would our brain continue functioning, if at all? If we somehow inhibited the rolling cell black-outs, what would happen? How much would our functionality degrade THEN?
Johnson,
You've just proved why you'll never be a scientist. The conclusion was about WHY there was a lesser abililty to finish a task correctly. Did you know that part of your brain just 'shuts off' when fatigued? There could be other plausible reasons impairment happens. Off the top of my head, fatigue could cause a change in brain chemistry that makes neuron transfer more difficult. But they found different results, so we learned something.
No, u can't use this as and escape for your stupidity, dear Spunkytz.
OK Nick.............your keys please!
U 2 Read..............keys!!
Good article, think it is pertinent to understand the underlying intricacies of why we operate. Granted, it may seem obvious that animals function worse with less sleep, but who knew our brain literally shut down? Reminds me of a time I was developing curriculum for a course I was writing. As I was working on the supplementary PowerPoint, I "zoned out" and realized after a few seconds that I had done so with my finger on the DELETE button. Needless to say, it was quite a bit of re-work, FYI the UNDO function only works for 20 slides.
I'm sure anyone who sews can understand this article! I often sew in the evenings, sometimes I'll "zone out" and a row of stitches will be perfect regardless. The next time that happens I find myself unpicking seams...
I had one moment last week where I thought my computer was going insane. I was in an Excel based program, and the highlighted square kept jumping from square to square extremely rapidly. When I lifted my left hand up to grab the phone (about to call IT), I realized I had been pressing the "Tab" button down. Oops!
As a theatre seamstress I often have to pull all nighters to finish costumes. Sometimes I am startled to find a seam that I pinned and sewed when I think I was awake, but there's no recollection of doing it. Usually part of that seam has to be redone. So, yes, MinneeL, you are not alone!
I have stopped for an extended period of time at a stop sign "waiting for it to turn green"
Wonder how many PETA protests these scientists had to endure, what with keeping rats awake and then shoving electrodes into their brains. Guess this is why I crave a hunk of cheese when I wake up.
If everything we think is physically defined, how can we possibly have afterlives?
So that's why I kept forgetting my logon passwords at work!
At the end of a night shift, I have tried to use my car keys to clock out... more than once.
Once I was so tired when driving from Austin to Houston that I somehow ended up on the wrong side of the highway. Fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic. Even more fortunately, there was a rest stop nearby.
Since I have sleep apnea, I don't get quality sleep. On top of that I rarely sleep at one time for more than a few hours. No, I am not 70 years old. I am in my 30's. I fall asleep for a few seconds at a time throughout the day and most of the time it is harmless enough.
However, recently I fell asleep while sitting on the toilet. I fell forward, pants down at my ankles and I smashed my face into the floor scale. My face hurt for days although it was funny and embarassing.
Didn't anyone get the irony? Rat brain takes a CAT nap!?!? LOL. OK - maybe some of us aren't awake yet...
I've stood in front of my door clicking on my car control and expecting the door to unlock.
It has finally been discovered what causes a brain fart and day dreaming.
I have sleep apnea and, because the quality is so poor, I often end up very tired at work
and elsewhere. On the road I have fallen asleep twice and once got a DUI for it. Nearly got
killed both times.
It's a serious matter.
I was once so tired at work, as I was getting ready to go home I tried to drag and drop a block of text from the screen onto a piece of paper that was hanging on the side of the monitor. I actually tried it 3 or 4 times before I realized it would never work...maybe someday... :)
The look on my sons' face was priceless~~ as he realized I was frustrated...trying to call my mom with my cell phone...turns out I was using the TV remote control. *sigh*