Platonic solids — From First Principles

Topic

Sleep

Episodes and research papers from From First Principles that help explain Sleep from the ground up.

Episodes

Conversations and explainers connected to Sleep.

Dream Engineering, the Proton Radius Puzzle, and an ALS Breakthrough
EP 27

Dream Engineering, the Proton Radius Puzzle, and an ALS Breakthrough

Dream engineering, the proton radius puzzle, and a real predictive ALS model.

Research

Papers and studies featured by the show.

DNA damage modulates sleep drive in basal cnidarians with divergent chronotypes

Imagine your nerve cells are tiny workers in a factory that runs all day. As they work, they make a small mess and sometimes break their tools (this is like DNA damage). Sleep is like the night-time cleaning and repair crew. It shuts down the main factory operations so the crew can come in, clean up the mess, and fix the broken tools. This study looked at the simplest, oldest factories in the animal kingdom—jellyfish and sea anemones—and found that they also need this nightly repair crew. When they were forced to stay 'awake,' the mess and broken tools piled up. This suggests that the need for a dedicated repair shift (sleep) is a very old and essential part of being an animal.

Sleep