#30DAYSOFSCIKUCHALLENGE

Of Sleep and Traffic Jams

Day 15 Prompt: Circadian Science Inspired Sciku

tired yet cannot sleep cytoplasmic traffic jam ruins per circadian clock genes

Now that many of us are back at work/school from home given the COVID crisis, a key element of the post-holiday rush is still missing — the weekday commute — Remember those traffic jams from back in the day, when we used to have to commute to work — Well, new research from KAIST and Florida State University indicates that a certain type of “cytoplasmic traffic jam” could be in part contributing to irregular sleep-wake cycles — Let me explain.

Nearly all living things, including humans, experience changes in gene activity, biochemistry, physiology, and behavior that wax and wane through the cycle of days and nights — a circadian clock adapted to correspond to Earth’s rotational schedule of 24 h.

The circadian clock signals our body the timing of rest by generating the 24-hour rhythms of a protein called PERIOD (PER). For instance, the amount of the PER protein increases for half of the day and then decreases for the remaining half. The exact mechanism of how this is achieved has long been investigated.

It has remained a mystery how thousands of PER molecules can simultaneously enter into the nucleus in a complex cell environment where a variety of materials co-exist and can interfere with the motion of PER. This would be like finding a way for thousands of employees from all over New York City to enter an office building at the same time every day ( source: Science Daily).

New research uses a combination of mathematical modeling and experiments and proposes that — a type of phosphorylation synchronization switch allows thousands of PER protein molecules to enter the nucleus at the same time every day and maintain stable circadian rhythms.

The authors further propose that aging and/or diseases including dementia and obesity can cause the cytoplasm to become congested such that the phosphorylation synchronization switch stops working, resulting in PER proteins entering into the nucleus at irregular times, making the circadian rhythms unstable and ultimately leading to having irregular sleep and fatigue.

The more we learn, the more fascinating the circadian science is in its complexity controlling our environment — body-mind connection. The hope is that continued research will help us find better treatment strategies for managing irregular sleep cycles- I cannot wait!.

In the meantime, I hope you have a restful weekend, get to spend some time in the sun away from traffic jams, and enjoy a good night's sleep.

Thanks for reading!

*This is Day 15 of the #sciku challenge — science-inspired haiku-like poetry( so #sciku?) prompts to get you inspired — Our dear readers — why not spend some time each day creating and having a little fun — if you do — publish it anywhere on medium, just tag it with — #30DaysOfScikuChallenge.

** Tagging Lynn E. O’Connor, Ph.D. ASeiler antoinette nevitt and anyone else who feels inspired to follow and/or play along with this fun #30DaysOfScikuChallenge and today’s prompt: Circadian Science

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