Sugar makes mice sleepy
Glucose injections trigger nerve cells to spur slumber
Contrary to parental belief, sugar may actually cause drowsiness, not hyperactivity. Key brain cells awash in glucose put mice to sleep, scientists report July 8 in the Journal of Neuroscience.
“We all experience this strong feeling of sleepiness after a very large meal,” says study coauthor Christophe Varin of Lyon Neuroscience Research Center and ESPCI ParisTech in France. Sugar is the reason those post-meal naps are often irresistible, the results suggest.
This study offers hard evidence that sugar promotes sleep, an idea that had been largely anecdotal, says neuroscientist Denis Burdakov of the Francis Crick Institute in London. “It’s really great to see it measured properly,” he says.