睡眠研究的科学前沿

The Scientific Frontiers of Sleep Research

关于睡眠机制的研究是一门历史悠久的学科.在过去的几十年中,运用细胞电生理学来研究睡眠取得了可喜的成果.由于种种技术上的困难,近年来该领域的研究多集中于临床和医学范围,例如嗜睡症、抑郁症等.虽说睡眠的节律性较易理解,但作为其本质———睡眠的基因和分子水平的自动平衡调节仍是一个谜.细胞因子(IL-1和TNFα)对睡眠的诱导作用已显示从分子水平上了解睡眠的可能性.到目前为止,关于睡眠的功能已有不少理论和假说,但人类对睡眠的生化机制的认识尚处于起步阶段.

Sleep research is an old discipline. Over the past century, much progress in the field has been achieved, e.g., through the cellular electro-physiology. Due to some unsolvable technical difficulties, sleep researchers are more focused on clinical aspects of sleep problems, such as narcolepsy, depression and so on. Although the circadian component of sleeping comparatively has been well understood, the homeostatic component  the true essence of sleep  remains a mystery. The induction of cell factors (IL1 and TNFα) to sleep has shown the possibility to understand sleep in molecular level. So far, there have been a number of theories and hypotheses, but humans' knowledge about the molecular mechanism of sleep are still in the primary stage.