Here's a common link between Sleep and aging

As part of a recent study, researchers have found oxidative stress as the common link between sleep and aging.

The research suggests that oxidative stress leads to sleep and is also believed to be a reason why we age. It is also seen as a cause of degenerative diseases.

"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 aging 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," explained Gero Miesenbock, lead researcher of the study.

The team studied the regulation of sleep in fruit flies - the animal that also provided the first insight into the circadian clock nearly 50 years ago. Each fly has a special set of sleep-control neurons, brain cells that are also found in other animals and believed to exist in people. In previous research Professor Miesenbock discovered that these sleep-control neurons act like an on-off switch: if the neurons are electrically active, the fly is asleep; when they are silent, the fly is awake. Read Complete Article