What Triggers Our Need for Sleep? Oxford Scientists Have the Answer

We know that sleep gives our bodies and brains the chance to rest and recover, allowing us to function well. However, scientists have discovered that sleep might be essential to maintaining the body's power supply. Here is what to know about sleep.

Bed Asian girl happy smiling sleeping on stomach sleeper resting head on foam pillow. Healthy sleep.

A new study by Oxford University researchers has found that sleep can be vital to maintaining our body power supply. The study explains how the pressure to sleep develops from a build-up of electronic stress in small energy producers inside brain cells.

The new research provides a physical rationalization for the biological sleep drive. The discovery may reshape scientists’ perception about sleep, aging, and neurological diseases. The Oxford research team has discovered that sleep is triggered by the brain’s reaction to a form of subtle energy imbalance. The secret lies in the mitochondria, microscopic structures inside cells, which convert food into energy by using oxygen.

When the mitochondria of certain sleep-regulating brain cells (studied in fruit flies) become overcharged, they start to leak electrons, producing potentially damaging byproducts known as reactive oxygen species. This leak appears to act as a warning signal that pushes the brain into sleep, restoring equilibrium before damage spreads more widely.

The new research reveals that certain neurons work like circuit breakers, and mitochondrial electron leaks trigger sleep when a certain limit is reached.

Even replacing electrons with energy from light (using proteins borrowed from microorganisms) had the same effect: more energy, more leak, more sleep.

Professor Gero Miesenbock from the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, who has led the research team, says, 'We set out to understand what sleep is for, and why we feel the need to sleep at all. Despite decades of research, no one had identified a clear physical trigger.”

Woman sleeping in her bed and alarm clock

Professor Miesenbock said their discovery shows that the answer may lie in the process that fuels the body, “aerobic metabolism.”

In certain sleep-regulating neurons, we discovered that mitochondria - the cell’s energy producers - leak electrons when there is an oversupply. When the leak becomes too large, these cells act like circuit breakers, tripping the system into sleep to prevent overload.

This discovery can help scientists explain how well-established metabolism, sleep, and lifespan are interconnected. According to Dr. Raffaele Sarnataro, a study member, this research answers one fundamental biological mystery: why do we need sleep? The answer appears to be written into the very way our cells convert oxygen into energy.

According to the study, people with mitochondrial diseases often experience extreme fatigue even without physical exertion, a symptom this newly discovered mechanism may help explain.

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Why do we need sleep? Oxford researchers find the answer may lie in mitochondria | University of Oxford