Lack of Sleep Kills Brain Cells

Let us get something out of the way first: we are not rats. Rat studies, which have been more or less the lingua franca of biological research for two generations, do not extrapolate consistently to humans. Countless headline-grabbing rat experiments have failed to deliver similar results in human studies – sometimes spectacularly.

But rat research can occasionally drive solid medical findings. This may be the case with a recent study which shows that rats deprived of sleep exhibited clear signs of irreversible brain damage in the form of cell death:

“We now have evidence that sleep loss can lead to irreversible injury,” says lead author Sigrid Veasey, MD, associate professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. ”This might be in a simple animal but this suggests to us that we are going to have to look very carefully in humans.”

The culprits behind sleeplessness are manifold, and may include personal stress, disease, and environmental distractions. But one of the simplest to diagnose and treat is obstructive sleep apnea, a condition that wakes people dozens of times every night gasping for air.

Sinus surgery procedures such as septal surgery (septoplasty), turbinate reduction surgery, and even nasal polyp removal can all reverse apnea, helping to open airways which have been obstructed. To learn more about how you can sleep better and avoid the specter of lasting damage, please contact my sinus surgery practice here today.

Tags: brain damage, los angeles sinus surgery, nasal polyp removal, septoplasty, sleep apnea, studies, turbinate reduction surgery