WHATS KEEPING ME FROM DEEP SLEEP SERIES

The finding could be especially helpful for those with REM sleep disorder, a disease that causes people to act out their dreams.

The data suggest the two neurotransmitters must both be present together to maintain motor control during sleep, rather than working separately. In other words, when the motor cells were cut off from all sources of GABA and glycine, the paralysis did not occur, allowing the rats to exhibit high levels of muscle activity when their muscles should have been inactive. The researchers found that to prevent REM sleep paralysis, they had to block both the ionotropic receptors and metabotropic GABA B receptors, a different receptor system. However, when the researchers blocked these receptors, REM sleep paralysis still occurred. Previous research suggested neurotransmitter receptors called ionotropic GABA A/glycine receptors in the motor neurons caused REM sleep paralysis. Brain cells called trigeminal motor neurons communicate the brain's message to move to these muscles.

The researchers measured electrical activity in the facial muscles responsible for chewing of sleeping rats. 'By identifying the neurotransmitters and receptors involved in sleep-related paralysis, this study points us to possible molecular targets for developing treatments for sleep-related motor disorders, which can often be debilitating,' he said McGinty, PhD, a behavioral neuroscientist and sleep researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study.

'The study's findings are relevant to anyone who has ever watched a sleeping pet twitch, gotten kicked by a bed partner, or has known someone with the sleep disorder narcolepsy,' said Dennis J. This finding reversed earlier beliefs that glycine was a lone inhibitor of these motor neurons. Peever, PhD, found that the neurotransmitters gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glycine caused REM sleep paralysis in rats by 'switching off' the specialized cells in the brain that allow muscles to be active.

WHATS KEEPING ME FROM DEEP SLEEP SERIES

In a series of experiments, University of Toronto neuroscientists Patricia L. During REM sleep - the deep sleep where most recalled dreams occur - your eyes continue to move but the rest of the body's muscles are stopped, potentially to prevent injury.

Whats keeping me from deep sleep