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J.C. Ehlen et al., “Bmal1 function in skeletal muscle regulates sleep,” eLife, 6:e26557, 2017.
The protein Bmal1, which helps regulate the body’s internal clock, is found in especially high levels in the brain and in skeletal muscles. Mice completely deficient in Bmal1 were known to suffer from sleep impairments, but the specifics at play weren’t clear. At the University of California, Los Angeles, Ketema Paul and colleagues looked to these mice for clues about the role Bmal1 plays in sleep regulation.
When Paul’s team restored levels of the Bmal1 protein in the mice’s brains, their ability to rebound from a night of bad sleep remained poor. However, turning on production in skeletal muscles alone enabled mice to sleep longer and more deeply to recover after sleep loss.
For decades, scientists have thought sleep was controlled purely by the brain. But the new study indicates the ability ...
