Humans spend about a third of their lives sleeping. Scientists have struggled to figure out why, but there may be a very clear answer. Apparently, the reason for sleep is potentially that it gives the body time to repair damaged and broken DNA. Continue reading to find out how sleep assists with this very important biological process. 

DNA Repair and Wakefulness 

DNA is the basic building block of life. However, the DNA in our cells accumulate damage due to UV light, radiation, increased physical and biochemical stress, and even just simple mistakes that our body makes during replication. Our body has repair systems to repair these cracks and flaws in the DNA in our cells, but these repair systems function more effectively during sleep than waking hours. 

This may be due to the fact that during sleeping hours, the body can dedicate more resources to repairing DNA when other systems aren't using as much energy. This is especially true for DNA in our neurons. During wakefulness, the neurons are so busy making connections and working that they don't have time to repair DNA. The longer you're awake, the more damage that is inflicted on your neuronal DNA at a rate that's faster than the body can repair it. If repair systems aren't functioning at optimal levels, then damage can reach dangerous levels that can temporarily or permanently harm the brain. 

Zebrafish Study 

In order to analyze this relationship, researchers looked at Zebrafish due to how great they are as a model for genetic manipulations and their similar structure to the mammalian brain. 

The first part of the study involved irradiation and drugs to induce DNA damage in zebrafish and found that increased damage led to increased need for sleep so the body could run its repair systems. 

The second part of the study involved using gene-editing tools to play around with a protein called PARP1 which tells the body what parts of the cell's DNA need repair. The researchers found that increased amounts of this protein promoted more sleep, and more sleep-dependent repair. Inhibition of this protein meant the fish didn't go to sleep, and therefore didn't repair the DNA well. 

Implication of this Study 

This study may be important in the future in relation to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, for which sleep disturbances are a symptom. So potentially treating PARP1 activities could theoretically be a way of treating these diseases. This also further points out the relationship between sleep and stress. 

If you are having trouble sleeping, then it's important that you speak to someone immediately. Click the orange button below to take a free online sleep test and speak with a sleep specialist today. 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/we-need-sleep-because-it-helps-repair-dna-damage-in-brain-cells-new-study-finds?ref=scroll