నైరూప్య

Could not win thee sleep: Metabolic cost of sleep debt

Arjun Sengupta

 This presentation will discuss recent translational discoveries from our group that demonstrate metabolic profiling using cutting edge NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry are instrumental in understanding the biology of sleep and chronobiology. Sleep or sleep like behavior is conserved in almost all animal species across the evolutionary timescale. The physiological role of sleep to increased quality of life is known but not well understood. It is believed that sleep serves as a compensating mechanism for the systemic tax related to the activities during wakefulness. In spite of clear health benefits, sleep curtailment is an overwhelming and prevalent burden across the globe. Decreased sleep and sleep disorders are associated to life threatening diseases including cardiometabolic ailments and cancer. Using metabolomics technologies, we have shown in a rat model that sleep restriction imparts significant changes in hepatic metabolic profiles. Similar changes are also heavily manifested in circulatory peripheral metabolites and lipids. Together, these observations demonstrate a shift in oxidative metabolism. In humans, sleep restriction leads to global metabolic shift associated to alteration in energy metabolism. We have further demonstrated that metabolic changes are manifested in chronic diseases such as insomnia associated with decreased quality and quantity of sleep. These studies reveal that insomnia rewires the metabolic network to induce night-time catabolic activities and significantly affects the metabolic oscillation during the diurnal day. Some of the changes are associated to altered metabolic networks preceding type 2 diabetes hence reaffirming the notion that altered sleep leads to metabolic diseases. Finally, we posit that these types of studies will be critical in clinics for unraveling sleep deprivation related disorders and their treatment.
Sleep and its disorders are increasingly becoming important in our sleep deprived society. Sleep is intricately connected to various hormonal and metabolic processes in the body and is important in maintaining metabolic homeostasis. Research shows that sleep deprivation and sleep disorders may have profound metabolic and cardiovascular implications. Sleep deprivation, sleep disordered breathing, and circadian misalignment are believed to cause metabolic dysregulation through myriad pathways involving sympathetic overstimulation, hormonal imbalance, and subclinical inflammation. This paper reviews sleep and metabolism, and how sleep deprivation and sleep disorders may be altering human metabolism