Science reports:

Lack of sleep wreaks havoc on the brain, making us worse learners and disrupting our memory, among other insults.

Now, a study in mice suggests some of these effects could stem from changes in how brain cells are connected to one another.

In a paper published today in Current Biology, researchers show that just hours of sleep deprivation reduce how many different types of synapses—the places where neurons meet—there are in brain regions associated with learning and memory. The findings hint at a novel way sleep might help keep us sharp, the team says.

The study “is a technical tour de force,” says Marcos Frank, a neuroscientist at Washington State University who was not involved in the work. Still, he and others caution it’s not yet clear whether this result explains sleep deprivation’s unpleasant side effects. [Continue reading…]