Brain Circuit Linking Sleep and Growth Hormone Identified, Offering new hope for Treatments
BERKELEY, CA – September 8, 2025 – Researchers at UC Berkeley have pinpointed a neural circuit that governs the release of growth hormone during sleep, revealing a tightly balanced system crucial for growth, repair, and metabolic health. The groundbreaking study,published in Cell,directly recorded neural activity in mice across multiple sleep-wake cycles,demonstrating distinct mechanisms of growth hormone release during both REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and non-REM sleep.
While growth hormone levels increased during both sleep phases, the study found that the neurons responsible for promoting and inhibiting its production shifted their influence. A key component of this system is the locus coeruleus, a brain region known for its role in wakefulness, which appears to be involved in a feedback loop regulating hormone release.
“This suggests that sleep and growth hormone form a tightly balanced system,” explains neuroscientist Daniel Silverman. “Too little sleep reduces growth hormone release, and too much growth hormone can in turn push the brain toward wakefulness.”
The research highlights the interconnectedness of sleep and growth hormone, with sleep driving hormone release and growth hormone later regulating wakefulness.Beyond its role in physical growth, growth hormone is vital for managing glucose and fat processing. Disruptions to this balance, frequently enough caused by sleep deprivation, can elevate the risk of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
Moreover, the locus coeruleus’s influence extends to alertness during waking hours, suggesting the newly identified mechanisms could also impact cognitive function. Researchers note that further investigation is needed to confirm these connections and to determine if the findings translate directly to human brains.
Though, the discovery opens promising avenues for future treatments. “Understanding the neural circuit for growth hormone release could eventually point toward new hormonal therapies to improve sleep quality or restore normal growth hormone balance,” Silverman stated. He also suggested the circuit could be a target for experimental gene therapies, possibly allowing researchers to “dial back the excitability of the locus coeruleus,” a previously unexplored approach.
The researchers are providing a basic circuit to work on in the future to develop different treatments. This research represents a meaningful step towards understanding the complex interplay between sleep,hormones,and overall health,potentially paving the way for innovative therapies to address widespread sleep disorders and related health concerns.
Source: ding et al., Cell, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.05.039
https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/09/08/sleep-strengthens-muscle-and-bone-by-boosting-growth-hormone-levels-uc-berkeley-researchers-discover-how/
