Sleep still remains one of the big mysteries in biology. All animals sleep, and people who are deprived of sleep suffer physically, emotionally and intellectually. But nobody knows how sleep restores the brain. Now, Giulio Tononi, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, has discovered how to stimulate brain waves that characterize the deepest stage of sleep.
Using a technique called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) scientists were able to send a harmless magnetic signal through the scalp and skull and into the brain, where it activates electrical impulses. In response to each burst of magnetism, the subjects’ brains immediately produced slow waves typical of deep sleep. With a single pulse, they were able to induce a wave that looks identical to the waves the brain makes normally during sleep.
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