Brain Glycogen Decreases with Increased Periods of Wakefulness: Implications for Homeostatic Drive to Sleep
Open accessAbstract
Sleep is thought to be restorative in function, but what is restored during sleep is unclear. Here we tested the hypothesis that increased periods of wakefulness will result in decreased levels of glycogen, the principal energy store in brain, and with recovery sleep levels of glycogen will be replenished, thus representing a homeostatic component of sleep drive. Using a high-energy focused microwave irradiation method to kill animals and thereby snap-inactivate glycogen-producing and -metabolizing enzymes, we determined, with accuracy and precision, levels of brain glycogen and showed these levels to decrease significantly by approximately 40% in brains of rats deprived of sleep for 12 or 24 hr. Recovery sleep of 15 hr duration after 12 hr of sleep deprivation reversed the decreases in glycogen. Using a novel histochemical method to stain brain glycogen, we found glycogen to be concentrated in white matter; this finding was confirmed biochemically in white matter dissected from rats killed with microwave irradiation. Levels of glycogen, as determined histochemically, were significantly decreased in gray and white matter with sleep deprivation, and these decreases were reversed with recovery sleep. The observed decreases in levels of brain glycogen may be a consequence of increased wakefulness and/or a component integral to the homeostatic drive to sleep.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Glycogen decreases by as much as 40% in rats deprived of sleep for 24 hours by novelty and gentle handling, an effect reversed by recovery sleep.
“Glycogen, found predominantly in white matter, is also profoundly affected by sleep deprivation and is reported to decrease by as much as 40% in rats deprived of sleep for 24 hours by novelty and gentle handling, an effect reversed by recovery sleep.63,64”
From Sleep Deprivation and Circadian Disruption (2015) · cites this paper as [63]
Glycogen in white matter decreases by as much as 40% in rats deprived of sleep for 24 hours by novelty and gentle handling, and is reversed by recovery sleep.
“Another noteworthy effect of sleep deprivation is regulation of the level of glycogen, found predominantly in white matter, which is reported to decrease by as much as 40% in rats deprived of sleep for 24 hours by novelty and gentle handling, and reversed by recovery sleep.26,27”
From Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators: central role of the brain (2006) · cites this paper as [26]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 41 · Cited by 281
- Authors
- Kong, J., Shepel, P. N., Holden, C. P., Mackiewicz, M., Pack, A. I., & Geiger, J. D.
- Affiliations
- St. Boniface Hospital (CA)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Venue
- The Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2002-07-01
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 13
- Pages
- 5581-5587
- ISSN
- 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-2401
- PMC
- PMC6758203
- OpenAlex
- W1949006326
- Cited by
- 281
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 7.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (P01AG017628, AG 17628)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (P50HL060287)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Keywords
- brain glycogen, sleep homeostasis, sleep deprivation, recovery sleep, wakefulness, glycogen metabolism, sleep drive
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Astrocytes, Brain, Brain Chemistry, Glycogen, Homeostasis, Male, Sleep Deprivation, Wakefulness, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Rats
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
