Welcome back, neuron lovers! In this week's episode of From Our Neurons to Yours, we're talking about the neuroscience of sleep. Why is slumber so important for our health that we spend a third of our lives unconscious? Why does it get harder to get a good night's sleep as we age? And  could improving our beauty rest really be a key to rejuvenating our bodies and our minds?

To learn more, I spoke with Luis de Lecea, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford, who has been at the forefront of sleep science since  leading the discovery of the sleep-regulating hormone hypocretin 25 years ago.

De Lecea's research aims to understand the mechanisms behind sleep regulation and develop interventions to improve sleep quality and efficiency. With support from the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience at Wu Tsai Neuro, De Lecea is collaborating with Stanford psychiatry professor Julie Kauer and colleagues to understand the role of sleep centers in neurodegeneration.

In our conversation, de Lecea explains  the role of the hypothalamus and the sleep hormone hypocretin in regulating sleep and we discuss how lack of sleep can cause damage to cells and organ systems, leading to effects similar to premature aging.

As usual, Shakespeare put it best:

“Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast.”

—Macbeth

Links

• Learn more about the de Lecea laboratory
• Why Does My Sleep Become Worse as I Age? (New York Times, 2022)
• Losing sleep in adolescence makes mice less outgoing as adults (Stanford Scope Blog, 2022)
• Sleep and the Hypothalamus (Science, 2023)
• Hyperexcitable arousal circuits drive sleep instability during aging (Science, 2022)

Episode Credits
This episode was produced by Michael Osborne, with production assistance by Morgan Honaker, and hosted by Nicholas Weiler. Cover art by Aimee Garza.

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