In the absence of motivational stimuli, our brains are designed to fall asleep.If you have fallen asleep during a meeting, don't blame yourself: blame your neurons. Specifically, a set of neurons in a brain area known as the nucleus accumbens, which is a region known to play a role in motivation and reward.
This is what a study recently published in the journal Nature Communications seems to suggest.
The findings may open new therapeutic avenues for treating insomnia and other sleep disorders.
For the new study, researchers based in China and Japan used cutting-edge technology to monitor the brain circuits involved in sleep control.
When we are not exposed to interesting, stimulating experiences - or, simply put, when we get bored - we tend to fall asleep, despite our best efforts to stay awake.
Sleep control is influenced by a variety of cognitive and emotional factors, but, as the authors of the new study explain, the neurological underpinnings of this process are less known.
This is why Yo Oishi, of the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, and his colleagues set out to explore this research topic further.
The scientists were also prompted by existing research that suggested that the brain area known as the nucleus accumbens might also play a role in triggering sleep.
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