| Abstrakt: |
We spend almost one-third of our life sleeping, yet very little is understood as to why we need sleep or how do we sleep. The extrinsic and intrinsic controlling mechanisms of sleep have fascinated scientists for generations and many different theories, networks and endogenous compounds have been proposed. Although various substances are labeled 'sleep-inducing substances' for example, delta sleep inducing peptide, prostaglandin etc. we still lack definitive knowledge on how these chemicals bring about a balance in regulating sleep and wakefulness. However, as the biochemical mechanisms underlying sleep control are now slowly emerging, the major question perhaps is whether these humoral mediators seem to have some relation to sleep by, for example, affecting circadian rhythms or arousal states thereby actively governing the sleep pattern or are they just responding to the sleep homeostasis [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
