Genius Mouse Experiment Reveals How Temperature Affects Our Dreams at Night:
Neuroscientists from the University of Bern in Switzerland broke a receptor gene in mice and watched how changes in temperature affected their sleep state, demonstrating the brain prioritises temperature control over dreaming.
When we're comfortable enough, our brains easily drift between a quiet state of rest and one described by the movement of our eyes: Rapid Eye Movement sleep (REM).
[...] when 'warm-blooded' animals like us do dream, temperature regulation is suppressed. Sweating, shivering, panting and flushing just isn't as effective at maintaining our core temperature once REM sleep kicks in.
"This loss of thermoregulation in REM sleep is one of the most peculiar aspects of sleep, particularly since we have finely-tuned mechanisms that control our body temperature while awake or in non-REM sleep", says neuroscientist Markus Schmidt from the University of Bern and the Department of Neurology at Bern University Hospital.
It's a short leap of logic to assume our brain makes a choice – process the events of that day, or let it go in favour of keeping your body from freezing or frying. Because for some reason it just can't do both.
[...] Fine-tuning body temperature and running a big brain are two of the most energy-intensive activities on a mammal's to-do list, so it seems reasonable to think these two vital tasks are going to come into conflict at some point.
[...] "These new data suggest that the function of REM sleep is to activate important brain functions specifically at times when we do not need to expend energy on thermoregulation, thus optimising use of energy resources," says Schmidt.
Noëmie Komagata, Blerina Latifi, Thomas Rusterholz, Claudio L.A. Bassetti, Antoine Adamantidis, Markus H. Schmidt. "Dynamic REM Sleep Modulation by Ambient Temperature and the Critical Role of the Melanin-Concentrating Hormone System" DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.05.009
(direct link: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)30542-1(paywalled).
No word on how this affects one's predisposition for sleepwalking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 23 2019, @11:23PM (4 children)
My doctor warned me that Mirtazapine (for PTSD) was going to give me weird dreams. Holy shit Batman... I dreamed of finding a flying carpet that only works when you pick up a small turtle statue that was nearby.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 23 2019, @11:44PM (2 children)
You should probably stop taking that shit. They have no idea what it's doing to you.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 24 2019, @01:38AM (1 child)
It's better than the PTSD, Doctor A.C.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 24 2019, @02:32AM
Good luck with bed wetting and serious anxiety, paranoia, and rage problems.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 24 2019, @06:37PM
you might try l-theanine, broccoli sprout extract and cbd instead.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 23 2019, @11:27PM
Scientists shouldn't be allowed to publish mouse studies unless they are first replicated in a species closer to humans, like the Irish.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Immerman on Monday June 24 2019, @12:11AM
Or just possibly, thermoregulation gets suppressed for the same reason muscle activity gets suppressed: it's controlled by the brain*, which is currently in a dream state that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with reality. Seems like heating/cooling your body in response to a dream state could be not just wasteful of sometimes precious calories and water, but also more immediately dangerous - dream of a cold winter night on a hot summer afternoon, and you might inflict heatstroke on yourself. Or reverse the situation and you might inflict frostbite. I could easily see how switching to a much rougher "thermal autopilot" could easily offer a substantial survival benefit.
* It's possible to learn to control your body temperature consciously, so it's quite possibly normally controlled by the subconscious when not dreaming - which would presumably make it responsive to the dream state.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 24 2019, @08:31AM (1 child)
hey, wait a minute: if you're not comfortable you won't be able to sleep. totally needs a genius mouse to figure that one out...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 24 2019, @08:44AM
in other news, after a extensive stint cleaning elephant turds and trying to change emu nest beddings at a zoo, a doctor came to the insight that the real mission of the job is to make it obsolete instead of exploiting the stupidity of general populations for the gain of supera global pharmaceuticalls and in consequence ... their own too.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday June 24 2019, @01:48PM
Try it.
When you're cold, shivering, teeth chattering together rapidly, try to solve a math problem possibly as simple as adding a couple two-digit numbers together. You'll have to stop shivering momentarily in order to do it.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.