DHAKA: Inconsistent sleep patterns may be hurting your brain, and making up for lost sleep on the weekends doesn`t help, according to new research.

Missing sleep may lead to brain damage, according to new research published in the Journal of Neuroscience on Tuesday.

Many assume that naps and sleeping in on weekends can help you catch up on your “sleep debt,” but that strategy won’t fix the damage you’ve already done to your brain, says neuroscientist Sigrid Veasey from the University of Pennsylvania.

Veasey and her colleagues studied mice who were submitted to a sleep schedule similar to that of shift workers. They slept for short periods during inconsistent hours. The researchers found that sleeping for only brief periods of time caused massive brain damage: the mice lost 25 percent of the neurons in their locus coeruleus, the section of their brain associated with alertness and cognitive function.

The scientists believe that when the mice slept inconsistently, their newer cells would create more sirtuin type 3, a protein meant to energize and protect the mice. But after several days of missing sleep, as a shift worker might, the protein creation fell off and cells began to die off at a faster pace.

Source: time.com

BDST: 1245 HRS, MAR 20, 2014