According to Yangcheng Evening News, the problem of "changing beds without sleeping", which plagues one third of the world's population, is expected to be cured by neurobiological means. The reporter learned on the 29th that the research results published in the latest issue of American Journal of Neuroscience by Huang Zhili, the State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology of Fudan University, provided new ideas and methods for solving this stubborn disease.

In medicine, some phenomena of being unable to fall asleep after changing beds are called "the first night effect". Qu Weimin and Xu, researchers from Huang Zhili's research group of Fudan University, recorded the sleep process of a mouse with a gene knockout of dopamine D2 receptor by using a highly automated sleep arousal analysis system, and combined with pharmacological means, analyzed the role of dopamine D2 receptor in the regulation of sleep arousal from gene to behavior. The results showed that compared with normal mice (wild-type mice), mice without dopamine D2 receptor were difficult to stay awake and increase sleep. In order to simulate the "first night effect" of people in the new environment, the researchers changed the living environment of animals and investigated the sleeping behavior of mice in the new environment. The results showed that mice with normal dopamine D2 receptor were very unaccustomed to new environmental stimuli and found it difficult to fall asleep, while mice with abnormal dopamine D2 receptor were "carefree" and fell asleep quickly.