E Science News -- As anyone who has ever struggled to keep his or her eyes open after a big meal knows, eating can induce sleepiness. New research in fruit flies suggests that, conversely, being hungry may provide a way to stay awake without feeling groggy or mentally challenged. Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found in a study of fruit flies that starvation allows the need for nourishment to push aside the need for sleep. Like humans and rats, fruit flies cannot survive without sleep. But in a line of flies engineered to be sensitive to sleep deprivation, starvation nearly tripled the amount of time they could survive without sleep. The findings will be published next week in the online, open access journal PLoS Biology.
