The locus coeruleus is emerging as a major new area of research interest, with many important functions such as regulating our attention and sleep.
Anyone with insomnia knows the impatience and frustration that accompanies sleeplessness, as you struggle to turn out the lights in your head and mute its inner voice. You long for a button or dial that could instantly dampen all that mental activity.
The idea of a mental dimmer switch is not quite as far-fetched as it might seem.
Click on the link above to read the full article in this BBC series, Health Fix, to learn ways to use the brain's blue dot to affect the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems to optimize your sleep.
