our need for sleep and the importance of long amounts of uninterrupted sleep may be driven by our mitochondria
During wakefulness, your neurons fire constantly, consuming enormous amounts of ATP. This drives the electron transport chain (ETC) at maximum capacity, which creates two critical problems: energy depletion and oxidation
1. Energy depletion: ATP gets hydrolyzed to ADP and AMP. The resulting low ATP/ADP ratio is a direct metabolic stress signal. Adenosine (formed from these breakdown products) accumulates and is a well-established sleep pressure molecule.
When we sleep neuronal activity decreases, allowing the electron transport chain to operate at lower capacity and reducing oxidation production and allow the reduction (opposite of oxidation) to catch up
the mitochondrial quality control mechanisms (mitophagy, biogenesis, fission/fusion dynamics) actively repair damage and replace dysfunctional mitochondria at a greater rate during sleep.
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/it-all-comes-down-mitochondria
