Does sleeping really do more than just prevent those wrinkles??
Who knows. Sleeping may do more than prevent those laugh lines. It may slow down the aging process all together. That is what a researcher in Vienna is testing.The article, "Do lazy mammals live longer?," immediately drew me in because of the title. The first thought that came to my mind was, "I sure hope so, just tell me how.”
Now I just needed to learn the details.
As I continued to read, I soon realized these researchers weren’t talking about humans, but they were talking about the animals that can hibernate.
This article discussed the experiment that researcher Christopher Turbill of the Institute for Wildlife Ecology in Vienna conducted on Djungarian hamsters. He tested to see if hibernation factors into longer lives. He divided his trial hamsters into two groups and tested two different states of torpor. Torpor happens during hibernation and is when a mammal temporarily lowers their body temperature and metabolism. The first group was introduced into a state of shallow torpor, their body temperature dropping below 84 degrees Fahrenheit. The second group went into a deeper state, their temperature dropping below 77 degrees.
The results showed that these daily doses of semi-hibernation helped preserve and even restore the animal's telomeres. Telomeres are little cap-like devices that sit on the end of chromosomes and protect the strand that is our genetic code. Nobel Prize winning biologist Elizabeth Blackburn compared telomeres to those little plastic wraps on the "tips of shoelaces." Once they are gone, the whole lace begins to fray and fall apart.
Basically, once an animal's telomeres begin to break down, it is all downhill from there. Or over the hill, whichever phrase you prefer.
