Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

The Miesenböck Group have discovered a brain process common to sleep and ageing in research that could pave the way for new treatments for insomnia.

Headshot of Gero in his office.

Writing in the journal Nature, the Miesenböck team report how oxidative stress leads to sleep. Oxidative stress is also believed to be a reason why we age and a cause of degenerative diseases.

The researchers say the discovery brings us closer to understanding the still-mysterious function of sleep and offers new hope for the treatment of sleep disorders. It may also explain why, as is suspected, chronic lack of sleep shortens life.

Professor Gero Miesenböck, Director of Oxford University’s Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, who led the Oxford team, said: ‘It’s no accident that oxygen tanks carry explosion hazard labels: uncontrolled combustion is dangerous. Animals, including humans, face a similar risk when they use the oxygen they breathe to convert food into energy: imperfectly contained combustion leads to “oxidative stress” in the cell. This is believed to be a cause of ageing and a culprit for the degenerative diseases that blight our later years. Our new research shows that oxidative stress also activates the neurons that control whether we go to sleep.’

More information is available on the University of Oxford website and the CNCB website.

The full paper, 'A potassium channel β-subunit couples mitochondrial electron transport to sleep', can be viewed here