The group found that genes promoting myelin formation were turned on during sleep. In contrast, the genes implicated in cell death and cellular stress response were turned on when the animals stayed awake.
"These findings hint at how sleep or lack of sleep might repair or damage the brain," said Mehdi Tafti, PhD, who studies sleep at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Tafti, however, was not involved in the study reported in the Sep 4 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
