By Julie Bierach, KWMU
SAINT LOUIS, MO – Scientists have long recognized that sleep deprivation impairs mental performance. Now, researchers at Washington University have found a way to mitigate the affects of sleep deprivation in fruit flies.
Dr. Paul Shaw, an assistant professor of neurobiology at Wash U studies how lack of sleep impairs the brain.
In his lab, Shaw genetically tweaked a part of the brain involved in learning and memory in fruit flies. The result: the flies were unimpaired even after being deprived of sleep.
Shaw says the goal of the research is to identify basic mechanisms that are impaired during waking and restored during sleep. He also hopes the research will help find new ways to help military personnel and first responders stay alert in times of crisis.
"These officials are awake, they don't get to sleep," said Shaw who is senior author of the paper that appears in Current Biology on August 5th. "They're awake for weeks, maybe two hours a night or less. It would be nice if we could figure out a way to help them operate efficiently without suffering consequences."
Shaw says such a treatment would just be for people who absolutely have to stay awake and would not be made available to everyone.
Shaw and his colleagues are currently testing whether sleep deprivation in young flies impairs brain development.