Stress neurotransmitter: wakes us up more than 100 times every night

Most people naively believe that a good sleep should never be interrupted. The University of Copenhagen has released new research showing how the stress transmitterthe noradrenaline, you wake us up more than 100 times a night. Don’t worry, this is normal and can even indicate that someone has slept well.

We have found the essence of the part of sleep that wakes us up refreshed and allows us to remember what we learned the day before. We’ve found that the refreshing part of sleep is powered by waves of norepinephrine. Very short awakenings are created by waves of noradrenaline, which are also so important for memory. You could say that brief awakenings reset the brain so that it is ready to store new memories when it falls back asleep.

Maiken Nedergaard, discoverer of the glymphatic system

Previous studies had shown that stress-related norepinephrine was inactive during sleep. In contrast, the new study surprised by overturning this belief. It is active and when we sleep, the level rises and falls constantly by wave pattern. High levels of norepinephrine indicate that the brain is awake for a short time. The low instead that we sleep.

Going from one ‘high’ to another takes about 30 seconds, which means that the levels of norepinephrine are constantly changing. At the same time, we could say that the deeper the ‘valley’ (ie the better the sleep), the higher the next peak and the higher the degree of awakening.

Mie Andersen, lead author of the study

Good sleep is good for us because it prevents Alzheimer’s disease and improves memory. The study on mice shows that those with deeper valleys of norepinephrine had better memory. Noradrenaline is a stress hormone, it has a link with adrenaline. Its levels can increase under stressful conditions, but it can be helpful for concentration.