While doctors have significantly refined their techniques over the subsequent 150 years\u2014ether<\/a> made patients throw up and was flammable enough to cause mid-surgery explosions<\/a>\u2014there are still outstanding questions about how anesthesia works.\u00a0<\/p>\n How anesthetics slow the brain<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say there hasn\u2019t been progress. Doctors now deliver safer anesthetics in more controlled ways, and there have been huge strides made in our understanding of how these drugs<\/a> work at a molecular level. \u201cHistorically, it was thought these were very non-specific compounds,\u201d says Nick Franks<\/a>, a professor of biophysics and anesthetics at Imperial College London. Now, he adds, researchers have identified the specific brain molecules that anesthesia tweaks to alter our consciousness.\u00a0<\/p>\n Low doses of most anesthetics, says Franks, work by affecting our brain cells\u2019 receptors. These receptors are like ports that shuttle molecules into and out of these cells. Several anesthetics, including propofol, thiopental, and isoflurane,\u00a0increase molecular traffic through a specific \u201cport\u201d known as the GABA receptor. This receptor normally gives passage to\u00a0gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an important molecule that inhibits brain activity. By increasing activity at the GABA receptor, anesthetics further slow the brain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Franks, alongside his colleague Bill Wisden, is especially interested in the anesthetic dexmedetomidine<\/a>, usually known as Dex. This drug blocks signaling through receptors in the brainstem for the molecule norepinephrine, which excites our brain. As the brainstem is crucial for maintaining consciousness, blocking these receptors sedates patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n What\u2019s the difference between sleep and anesthesia?<\/p>\n Where our certainty about anesthesia breaks down is in linking molecular changes to specific neural pathways, or in understanding the subjective experiences of a sleep-like state. Research is further complicated by the range of different effects brought on by anesthetics. Dex, for example, produces a state \u201clike non-REM sleep,\u201d says Wisden. Patients can be briefly roused\u2014for example, to ask them to roll over or change a dressing\u2014before falling unconscious again.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you look at the electrical waves that happen in sleep and when you get given this particular sedative, they look very similar,\u201d Wisden adds. Other anesthetics, like propofol, have different effects. At higher doses, propofol essentially stops all brain activity, except that required for basic survival.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\tRelated Sleep Stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n Sleep-mimicking anesthetics, like Dex, don\u2019t produce a perfect imitation. Physiological changes that occur when we sleep, such as fluctuations in body temperature and heart rate, also occur under Dex, but more strongly\u2014which is why medical professionals must administer the drug in a hospital setting. If natural sleep is attained by carefully dialing down our consciousness across several different parameters, anesthesia involves a more aggressive turn of these dials.<\/p>\n Why we need better anesthetics<\/p>\n General anesthesia is now very safe<\/a>, with deaths linked to anesthesia<\/a> occurring less than one in every 100,000 uses. However, anesthesia can still be improved\u2014complications related to anesthesia-induced body temperature changes remain a concern. If we can better understand anesthesia and create drugs that mimic natural rest more effectively, there could be huge benefits for patients. \u201cAfter a good night\u2019s sleep, you feel better,\u201d says Franks. \u201cYou generally do not feel like that after an anesthetic, although it\u2019s confounded by whatever procedure or surgery you may have had.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Although they aren\u2019t interested in drug development, Franks and Wisden say Dex would be the \u201cideal\u201d drug for exploring how to make an anesthetic that helps you feel rested, as it most closely mimics natural sleep. Some studies have even suggested the drug improves sleep quality<\/a> in post-operative patients. Even if how Dex works on a molecular level is clear, what it does when it affects all the receptors in our brain\u2014and even where those receptors are\u2014remains a mystery.<\/p>\n As our tools for mapping the brain and its activity continue to improve, we will come closer to developing anesthetics that feel more akin to a good night\u2019s rest.\u00a0<\/p>\n This story is part of Popular Science\u2019s Ask Us Anything series<\/a>, where we answer your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the ordinary to the off-the-wall. Have something you\u2019ve always wanted to know? Ask us<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t More deals, reviews, and buying guides<\/p>\n The PopSci team has tested hundreds of products and spent thousands of hours trying to find the best gear and gadgets you can buy.<\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the Popular Science daily newsletter\ud83d\udca1 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. The age of anesthesia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275],"tags":[18,4152,3617,135,475,474,19,17,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-41330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-evergreen","10":"tag-features","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-health-care","13":"tag-healthcare","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41330","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=41330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1756921448_78_ps-ggs.jpg\")
\t\t\t<\/p>\n