{"id":39967,"date":"2025-09-03T02:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/39967\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T02:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:58:07","slug":"why-do-we-need-sleep-oxford-scientists-trace-the-answer-to-mitochondria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/39967\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do We Need Sleep? Oxford Scientists Trace the Answer to Mitochondria"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Mitochondria<\/a>Oxford scientists have found that sleep may be triggered by tiny energy leaks in brain cell mitochondria, suggesting our nightly rest is a vital safety mechanism for the body\u2019s power supply. Credit: Stock<\/p>\n

A new study reveals that a buildup of metabolism in specialized brain cells is what triggers the need for sleep.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sleep may serve as more than rest for the mind; it may also function as essential upkeep for the body\u2019s energy systems. A new study from University of Oxford<\/a> researchers, published in Nature, shows that the drive to sleep is caused by electrical stress building up in the tiny energy-producing structures of brain cells.<\/p>\n

This finding provides a concrete physical explanation for the biological need for sleep and has the potential to reshape scientific thinking about sleep, aging, and neurological disorders.<\/p>\n

Mitochondria and energy imbalance<\/p>\n

The research team, led by Professor Gero Miesenb\u00f6ck from the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (DPAG) and Dr. Raffaele Sarnataro at Oxford\u2019s Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, discovered that sleep is triggered when the brain responds to a subtle imbalance in energy. The central role lies with the mitochondria, microscopic organelles that convert oxygen and food into usable energy.<\/p>\n

In certain sleep-regulating neurons studied in fruit flies, mitochondria that become overloaded begin leaking electrons. This leakage produces harmful byproducts called reactive oxygen species. The leak functions as a signal that forces the brain into sleep, allowing balance to be restored before cellular damage spreads further.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want your mitochondria to leak too many electrons,\u201d said Dr. Sarnataro. \u201cWhen they do, they generate reactive molecules that damage cells.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neurons as circuit breakers<\/p>\n

The team also discovered that specialized neurons behave like circuit breakers: they monitor the electron leak from mitochondria and trigger sleep once a critical threshold is reached. By altering how these cells managed their energy\u2014either increasing or reducing electron flow\u2014the scientists were able to directly control the amount of sleep in fruit flies.<\/p>\n

Even replacing electrons with energy from light (using proteins borrowed from microorganisms) had the same effect: more energy, more leak, more sleep.<\/p>\n

Professor Miesenb\u00f6ck said: \u201cWe set out to understand what sleep is for, and why we feel the need to sleep at all. Despite decades of research, no one had identified a clear physical trigger. Our findings show that the answer may lie in the very process that fuels our bodies: aerobic metabolism. In certain sleep-regulating neurons, we discovered that mitochondria \u2013 the cell\u2019s energy producers \u2013 leak electrons when there is an oversupply. When the leak becomes too large, these cells act like circuit breakers, tripping the system into sleep to prevent overload.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings help explain well-known links between metabolism, sleep, and lifespan. Smaller animals, which consume more oxygen per gram of body weight, tend to sleep more and live shorter lives. Humans with mitochondrial diseases often experience debilitating fatigue even without exertion, now potentially explained by the same mechanism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis research answers one of biology\u2019s big mysteries,\u201d said Dr. Sarnataro. \u201cWhy do we need sleep? The answer appears to be written into the very way our cells convert oxygen into energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reference: \u201cMitochondrial origins of the pressure to sleep\u201d by Raffaele Sarnataro, Cecilia D. Velasco, Nicholas Monaco, Anissa Kempf and Gero Miesenb\u00f6ck, 16 July 2025, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038\/s41586-025-09261-y<\/a><\/p>\n

Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oxford scientists have found that sleep may be triggered by tiny energy leaks in brain cell mitochondria, suggesting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[18,19,17,168,7818,1281,133,30595,30596],"class_list":{"0":"post-39967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-metabolism","12":"tag-mitochondria","13":"tag-neuroscience","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-sleep-science","16":"tag-university-of-oxford"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}