Extra Sleep Repairs Memory Problems in Flies

Research conducted on fruit flies has shown that extra sleep can help the brain to overcome neurological defects. Paul Shaw, PhD, associate professor of neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues disabled a different critical memory gene in 3 groups of fruit flies. In one group, the disabled gene led the flies to develop a condition similar to Alzheimer's disease. In another group, the disabled gene made it difficult for the flies’ brain cells to reinforce new connections that encode memories. Whilst in the third group, the disrupted gene left the flies’ with too many of these connections. However, the scientists found that they were able to fully restore the flies' ability to make memories by artificially increasing their sleep by an extra 3-4 hours of sleep daily over as little as 2-days. "In all of these flies, the lost or disabled gene still does not work properly,” said lead author Stephane Dissel, PhD. “Sleep can't bring that missing gene back, but it finds ways to work around the physiological problem." The researchers say that their findings may have “significant therapeutic potential” once they discover how to induce the “right kind of sleep” in humans.