Re: Mysteries of Sleep are Unfolding

Here is more support for my idea of wake/sleep being a daily cycle of
metabolism with wake being mostly catabolic processes, and sleeping
being mostly anabolic processes.

These excerpts from
http://www.chemistrydaily.com/chemistry/Sleep

Sleep is the fundamental anabolic process common to all life forms,
plant and animal. In animals, the sleeping state is characterized by
an absolute minimal degree of consciousness and decreased
responsiveness to the surrounding world.

Sleep is a dynamic, constructive time of healing and growth for animal
organisms. The simple substances which have been ingested during the
catabolic (awake) period are synthesized into the complex proteins of
living tissue. The waking life of animal organisms is a dynamic,
destructive time because the organisms' complex proteins are torn down
and exhausted as they are used for activities including locating and
ingesting preformed organic molecules to meet the immediate energy
needs of the wakened state and to provide the building block proteins
which fuel the anabolic dynamics that occur during sleep. ...

Every animal organism's lifelong alternation between anabolic and
catabolic periods, what we view as being asleep and being awake, is a
cyclical pattern which occurs daily. The human inner body clock seems
to be based on a 24.5-25.5 hour cycle, according to some studies.

The daily cycle of sleep and wakefulness is regulated by various
hormones produced by the hypothalamus and external stimuli, the level
of sunlight being the most obvious example. The body's levels of
certain neurohormones are highly correlated with the sleep and wakened
states. The levels of the orexin (hypocretin) neurohormone pair rise
sharply to mark the transition from the anabolic, sleep state to the
catabolic, wakened state. The melatonin level is high at times during
the anabolic state. Adenosine, a nucleoside which plays various roles
in biochemical processes, gradually accumulates in the human brain
during wakefulness but decreases during sleep.

The anabolic processes which characterize the sleep state do not
require any amount of consciousness. Sleep is very different from
other forms of unconsciousness such as coma. During sleep an animal
organism's organs, including the brain, remain very active. Sleep can
always be interrupted if given enough external stimulus.


Tom Hendricks



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