The compounds that activate A2A receptors in the nucleus accumbens may open safe therapeutic avenues for treating insomnia, the most common sleep problem.

‘To determine how much sleep you need, it's important to assess not only where you fall on the "sleep needs spectrum," but also to examine what lifestyle factors are affecting the quality and quantity of your sleep such as work schedules and stress.’

Lead author Yo Oishi said that the classic somnogen adenosine is a strong candidate for evoking the sleep effect in the nucleus accumbens. Adenosine has long been known to represent a state of relative energy deficiency and to induce sleep via adenosine receptors. A specific subtype of adenosine receptors, the A2A receptors, are densely expressed in the nucleus accumbens. 




Caffeine, the most widely consumed psychostimulant in the world, produces its arousal effect also in the nucleus accumbens by blocking A2A receptors. The compounds that activate A2A receptors in the nucleus accumbens may open safe therapeutic avenues for treating insomnia, which is one of the most common sleep problems with an estimated prevalence of 10-15 percent in the general population and 30-60 percent in the older population.
The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.
Source-ANI