‘Sometimes it feels like a glaring design flaw that we have to power down for six to nine hours a day just to keep the brain from frying. Now, according to a new study published in Nature Neuroscience, scientists may have found a way to give us all the benefits of sleep without actually going to sleep….’ ([object Object] via Vice)

Researchers recreated a deep-sleep brain rhythm in mice that remained fully awake and mobile. Mice that stayed awake while receiving the artificial sleep rhythm performed as well as fully rested mice, and molecular markers in their brains mirrored changes typically seen after natural sleep.

The investigators emphasized that this is not a practical shortcut for avoiding sleep. The method required genetic engineering and implanted brain electrodes, and natural sleep appears to restore the brain more evenly across regions.

Even so, the findings strikingly identify a specific electrical signal associated with restorative sleep and show that at least some benefits of sleep can be approximated by artificially reproducing that rhythm.