Investigating sleep efficiency mechanism and its impact on diseases

总结 我们的计划旨在寻求有关大脑和神经系统调节我们睡眠的基本知识 质量/效率，并利用这些知识来减少神经系统疾病的负担（可能有许多 其他人）。高质量的睡眠是保持健康的基本必需品，也是最佳睡眠的关键。 认知功能虽然我们已经知道这一点很长一段时间，我们很少了解如何 睡眠的质量和数量受到调节。我们开始研究具有家族性自然短睡眠的个体， 性状，现在已经确定了越来越多的基因/突变的名单，这些携带的 个体虽然他们天生每天睡眠时间较少，但他们并不渴望更多的睡眠， 似乎没有遭受睡眠不足的后果，通常过着长寿和健康的生活（无论是身体上的 和精神上），这表明他们的睡眠效率更高。确定这个群体中的遗传差异 为特定分子和途径参与调节睡眠提供了坚实的证据 质量/效率路径。这些分子不仅提供了揭示 而且还绘制了负责睡眠调节的大脑区域和细胞，从而了解了睡眠的机制。 睡眠质量/效率调节系统。我们已经使用了我们的短睡眠小鼠模型， 阿尔茨海默病小鼠模型证明这些短睡眠突变提供保护作用 对抗AD样病理的发展和进展。这一发现具有革命性的意义 高质量的睡眠有助于预防许多疾病，包括神经退行性疾病。我的研究旨在 了解如何调节睡眠质量，从而知道如何获得高质量的睡眠。的结果 这项研究计划将对人类健康长寿产生长期有益的影响。

Summary Our program aims to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system regulating our sleep quality/efficiency and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological diseases (and probably many others) for all people. Quality sleep is a fundamental necessity for maintaining health and critical for optimal cognitive functioning. Although we have known this for a long time, we have little understanding of how the quality and quantity of sleep are regulated. We began to study individuals with the familial natural short sleep trait more than a decade ago and have now identified a growing list of genes/mutations carried by these individuals. While they are genetically wired to sleep fewer hours per day, they do not desire more sleep and do not seem to suffer the consequences of sleep deficiency and usually live a long and healthy life (both physically and mentally), indicating that they sleep more efficiently. Identifying genetic differences in this population provides solid evidence for the involvement of specific molecules and pathways in regulating sleep quality/efficiency pathways. These molecules offer opportunities to not only reveal the molecular mechanisms but also map brain regions and cells responsible for sleep regulation, thus gaining an understanding of the systems involved in sleep quality/efficiency regulation. We have used our short sleep mouse models and Alzheimer-like disease mouse models to demonstrate that these short sleep mutations offer protective effects against the development and the progression of AD-like pathology. This finding has the revolutionary implication that quality sleep can help prevent many diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders. My research aims to understand how sleep quality is regulated and thus know how quality sleep can be obtained. The results from this research program will have long-lasting beneficial effects on human healthy longevity.