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1 day agoIt’s referring to plain adenosine. When adenosine builds up in the brain, the only way for the brain to get rid of the accumulation of it is by sleeping because it activates the glymphatic system, where CSF is used to flush out the waste/byproducts. If you don’t sleep, the adenosine continues to accumulate in the brain with nowhere to go.
Caffeine does this, but the effect is temporary. There’s a rare condition called Morvan Syndrome, where there is a case of a person with it going without any sleep for 4 months, and had no cognitive impairment. Normally a person would die after 11 days. Seems like this condition messes with the inhibitory synapses so it might also mess with how adenosine affects the brain as well. 10% of cases lead to death though