© Unknown
If you've ever lost your keys or stuck the milk in the cupboard and the cereal in the refrigerator, you may have been the victim of a tired brain region that was taking a quick nap.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have a new explanation. They've found that
some nerve cells in a sleep-deprived yet awake brain can briefly go "off line," into a sleep-like state, while the rest of the brain appears awake."Even before you feel fatigued, there are signs in the brain that you should stop certain activities that may require alertness," says Dr. Chiara Cirelli, professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine and Public Health. "Specific groups of neurons may be falling asleep, with negative consequences on performance."
Until now, scientists thought that sleep deprivation generally affected the entire brain. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) show network brain-wave patterns typical of either being asleep or awake.
"We know that when we are sleepy, we make mistakes, our attention wanders and our vigilance goes down," says Cirelli. "We have seen with EEGs that even while we are awake, we can experience shorts periods of 'micro sleep.' "
Comment: Read Can a High-Fat Diet Beat Cancer? to further understand how cancer cells appear to fuel themselves exclusively through glycolysis (creating energy through the fermentation of sugar in the cytoplasm). And how high-in-animal-fat ketogenic diet, which eliminates almost all carbohydrates, including sugar, helps to prevent cancer cells from spreading.