Dopamine has a well-known role in motivation, pleasure, and desire. Now, a group of scientists from the University of Barcelona and the Center for Network Biomedical Research for Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED) have discovered that this hormone also participates, together with norepinephrine, in the regulation of sleep.
The one in charge of regulating the changes in activity that our brain undergoes in function of the daily light-dark cycle is a hormone called melatonin, which is produced in the pineal gland and is released during the night . Until now, it was thought that melatonin secretion was individually regulated by norepinephrine, however, the new study, published in the journal PLoS Biology , reveals that dopamine is also involved in this process. Specifically, the pleasure hormone inhibits the production of melatonin when the day begins, that is, it is responsible for making us wake up .
This finding will be very useful to design treatments for people suffering from sleep disorders, which according to the World Health Organization affect 40 percent of the world's population.
