Khaberni - A recent study revealed that sleep deprivation is not only limited to mental fatigue, but it also causes physical damage to the brain structure by disrupting the myelin sheath that insulates neurons and maintains signal speed.
A research team from the University of Camerino in Italy conducted a study on how lack of sleep negatively affects the protective lipid sheath surrounding the brain's neurons.
According to the journal "Science.Alert," the researchers identified chemical disturbances in minimally ramified glial cells, which are specialized cells regulating the cholesterol necessary for myelin formation—identifying them as the root cause, linking sleep deprivation to myelin thinning, slowed neural signals, and cognitive impairment.
The researchers analyzed MRI images of 185 healthy volunteers, thus confirming previous results and experiments on mice, which indicate that poor sleep quality is associated with decreased integrity of the brain's white matter structure.
Self-reported declines in sleeping habits were directly linked to a significant deterioration in these neural pathways, highlighting the actual impact on mental processes.
It is noted that chronic sleep deprivation, which has become common in contemporary societies, represents a factor increasing the risk of reduced alertness, cognitive decline, and related diseases.
