Controlling our Body Clock?

For those of you who have sleep disorders, you're not alone. Sleep disorders occur in some 50-70 million adults in the US. Fortunately for us, scientists have already identified the protein that regulates our body clocks (which is more precisely called a circadian biological clock) - a protein called called REV-ERB. In a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications, scientists used various compounds to test the effect of regulating the protein. The scientists used a drug called SR9011 on mice that had dysfunctional body clocks to activate REV-ERB. This drug was found to not only increase wakefulness but also found to reduce anxiety. This is an incredibly important finding, as past drugs that have attempted to increase wakefulness have actually increased anxiety as well, a problem that scientists have not found a solution to until now. Although this drug is far from perfect, it is clear that a time with virtually no sleep disorders is certainly a plausible future.