Digital Scryer

The Washington University School of Medicine at St. Louis, released some more fruit fly sleep findings this week:

http://mednews.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/12092.html

These findings state that while it’s commonly known that people’s brains slow down with gradual sleep deprivation, they now know the reason and how to prevent it.

Regular fruit flies who were sleep deprived demonstrated a significant downward learning curve. Flies engineered with more dopamine receptors in their brain’s mushroom bodies (their equivalent to the human hippocampus) were able to maintain their mental performance despite a lack of sleep.

Basically their amount of dopamine seems to remain the same, they just have the ability to use it better. I’m wondering if this could have any nootropic (intelligence enhancing) side effects, other than just more mental stamina.

In the article they talk about how this could lead to methods for extended periods of wakefulness in emergency workers. The problem I see with it though, is the method by which it’s achieved. Upping your hippocampal dopamine receptors, whether through drug use or genetic engineering, would mean a major change in lifestyle. Your body clock wouldn’t be matched with the rest of the world and at the same time, I think it would create a caste system; regular sleepers vs. less sleepers. If you were a company, who would you be more likely to hire?

Popularity: 1% [?]

Technorati Tags: Biology, Dopamine, Fruit Flies, Genetic Engineering, Genetics, Hippocampus, Learning, Memory, Nootropic, Sleep

At the Howard Hughes Medical Institute last month, researchers released these interesting findings about sleep:

http://www.hhmi.org/news/sehgal20080717.html

It seems there’s a gene responsible for sleep regulation and having it knocked out makes fruit flies sleep eighty percent less if at all. The downside? It shortens their lives by a lot. The researches have dubbed the gene SLEEPLESS and are hoping to find a similar one in humans as well as more info about how sleep regulation works in all animals.

As a sometimes insomniac, this information really hits home. It could lead to real treatments for a lack of sleep instead of just the “maybe” treatments like the over the counter aids on the market today.

It could also be used to help treat Fatal Familial Insomnia, a very rare (28 families have it world wide) and inherited prion disease that causes gradually worsening insomnia, eventually leading to dementia and death. This recent research into FFI makes me think twice about the people in my article People Who Don’t Need Sleep.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Technorati Tags: Animals, Fatal Familial Insomnia, Fruit Flies, Gene, Genetics, HHMI, Insomnia, Insomniac, Sleep, SLEEPLESS

I’ve been gathering information on people who, after some trauma/sickness, lose their ability to saw logs. This doesn’t seem to detrimentally affect their health or cognitive functioning in any major way as cited by these two cases.

Thai Ngoc is a Vietnamese man hasn’t slept in decades. Some sources say that his problem was caused by a fever. This could be true, leading to an odd sort of brain damage. This source maintains that he had no illness, and that doctors couldn’t find anything physically wrong with him. He also only recently started to show mental impairment, though this could be his finally getting frustrated with his condition.

Thai Ngoc, Sleepless in Vietnam

This article reports that he has great strength and health, but a slight decline in liver function. This could be the lack of sleep, or many other factors such as improper diet, or any unhealthy habits Mr. Ngoc may have picked up, e.g. drinking. It could also be a side effect of the various medicines/treatments he mentions taking to help his condition.

Another case I found was the one of Senora Ines Fernandez. She hadn’t slept in over 30 years and was healthy except for a decline in eyesight, which could be attributed to aging. The onset of her condition was allegedly triggered by a stabbing pain in her head while observing a religious procession. A British doctor said her case might be a psychological problem.

Apparently while these cases are extremely rare, they are not totally unheard of. However, at the time of this writing these were the only 2 examples I could find.

The potential of studying and harnessing this ability is fantastic. Giving people the opportunity to work more or do more with their lives. To say nothing of the military/police/security applications.

Studying cases like this could allow medicines or treatments to be developed that could let people go for longer periods of waking time on less sleep. The fact that a doctor said it may be psychological is interesting to me, perhaps hypnosis treatments could be developed to give people this ability at will to use when they needed it.

Many people seem to believe that it’s not so much sleep people need, but REM/dreaming. Maybe the change in brain chemistry was that it made everything seem like a dream to these people, as if they were in a perpetual waking state of REM. Anyway, if anyone has any info to add to this, then please feel free to comment.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Technorati Tags: Brain Damage, Cognitive Functioning, Eyesight, Fever, Gathering Information, Head Injury, Improper Diet, Ines Fernandez, Lack Of Sleep, Liver Function, Mental Impairment, Military Police, Police Security, Psychological Problem, Religious Procession, Security Applications, Sickness, Sleep, Spanish, Thai Ngoc, Trauma, Unhealthy Habits, Vietnam