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Scientists discover why your brain demands sleep [1]

['Ellsworth Toohey']

Date: 2025-07-30

If you have ever wondered what your brain is complaining about when it yells "I need sleep," read Derek Lowe's latest post at Science.org. He walks through a brand-new fly study that tackles the oldest question in sleep research: where does the need to sleep actually come from? Not the side-effects (yawns, droopy eyelids), not the benefits (memory consolidation, growth hormone release), but the primal biochemical urge that forces every aerobic creature to power down.

The short version: the signal may originate in your mitochondria. The authors of the study looked at the sleep-control spot in exhausted fruit-fly brains and saw 122 genes switch on, most of them shouting "fix the batteries (mitochondria) and reset the nerve signals." The more the flies stayed up, the more their brain cells' "batteries" broke apart, got recycled, or grabbed spare parts — clear signs the cells were desperately trying to rebuild their power packs. By speeding up or slowing down the energy-making process, the researchers could make the flies feel sleepier or more awake. Their takeaway: when too many electrons get stuck in the cell's "battery wires," the brain decides it's bedtime to clear the jam.

This discovery turns tiredness from a fuzzy feeling into an energy-crisis alarm. It also clarifies why illnesses that hurt our cellular power plants—whether rare mitochondrial disorders or the lingering exhaustion of long COVID—hit people with a wall of fatigue they can't power through.

Previously:

• 'Catching up' on lost sleep may actually do more harm than good

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/07/30/scientists-discover-why-your-brain-demands-sleep.html

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