There is a new study from the University of Copenhagen that demonstrates that the stress transmitter noradrenaline leads you to wake up many times throughout the night. But don’t be alarmed. It’s all a natural aspect of getting a good night’s rest, and it may even indicate that you did so. The body’s fight-or-flight response is aided by the stress hormone and transmitter chemical known as noradrenaline. As with adrenaline, it may rise in response to stress, but it also aids concentration.
The idea that sleep is a condition that you go into and then come out of is a common misconception. Even while sleep may seem simple, there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. You may wake up upwards of 100 times a night if you take noradrenaline. And all of this occurs as a result of a regular night’s rest.
In spite of the fact that noradrenaline causes the mind to wake up and over 100 times every night, we don’t conceive of this as an awakening.
Your brain’s activity during these short periods of arousal is identical to that of a person who is fully awake. However, since it will only last a few seconds, the sleeper will not be aware.
The research was done on mice
Despite the fact that the researchers investigated mice, their results are likely to apply to humans as well since they focused on fundamental biological processes, i.e. systems that all mammals share. Test mice were implanted with microscopic optical fibers made of glass and “light receptors” genetically altered. An LED light source was used to illuminate the optical fibers, which were connected to cables.
The researchers then measured the current levels of noradrenaline in the animals’ brains while they were asleep and compared it to the brain’s electrical activity. The high quantities of noradrenaline were discovered here. Once the animals’ noradrenaline wave amplitudes were increased by implanting the apparatus, the researchers performed memory tests.
According to previous studies, the stress hormone noradrenaline lies dormant when we sleep. So the researchers were startled to discover how active noradrenaline is when we sleep.
Noradrenaline levels in the body fluctuate in a wavelike manner during sleep, according to recent research. When your noradrenaline levels are high, your brain is temporarily awake; when your noradrenaline levels are low, you are dozing off.In other words, your level of awakeness is directly linked to your noradrenaline amounts.
