Sleep : the sugar cane effective to calm the unrest

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Published the 06.09.2017 at 17h37

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Stress affects sleep. And, in turn, the lack of sleep generates stress. This vicious circle, many workers (and parents !) know it well, and it is sometimes difficult to stop it. There are, of course, the sleeping pills, but the side effects are not trivial, and they do not allow to reduce the level of stress.

Researchers from the university of Tsukuba (Japan) have shown that octacosanol could break this cycle. This substance could restore a normal sleep, when it is disrupted by stress. And, interestingly, it is present naturally in many foods.

An action anti-stress

The japanese scientists, whose study results were published in Scientific Reports, have subjected mice to a prolonged stress, which has resulted in these sleep disorders. In the administration of octacosanol, these disturbances have disappeared, and the rodents have found a sleep cycle normal.

For the researchers, the substance did not act directly on the sleep, as a sleep aid, but rather to the stress itself. The blood tests performed on mice have shown that octacosanol lowers the rate of a stress marker in plasma corticosterone.

The substance may therefore be used to manage insomnia due to stress. And, good news, it does not have any known side effects.