The reason sleep-deprivation kills is in the gut
bigthink.com
bigthink.com
1. In mice and flies, sleep deprivation causes an accumulation of ROS molecules in the gut.
2. When this accumulation is cleaned up using antioxidant, the sleepless subjects have a normal lifespan.
3. Subjects with a normal sleep schedule do not benefit from the extra antioxidant.
These are some pretty interesting results.