Abstract:With the incidence of insomnia increasing each year, there is an urgent need to develop active substances that can improve sleep. Caenorhabditis elegans was used to screen substances with the best sleep-improving effect from among four natural active substances (α-lactalbumin, γ-aminobutyric acid, L-theanine, and lily extract), and the mechanisms underlying their sleep-improving effects were examined. Finally, composites with sleep-improving effects were developed using these active substances. The results showed that all four natural active substances could reduce the levels of sleeprelated reactive oxygen species in C. elegans, and that α-lactalbumin had the best effect on improving sleep-related oxidative stress. Caenorhabditis elegans subjected to α-lactalbumin administration showed a 65.00% reduction in mitochondrial damage (P<0.05) and 4.10% increase in maximum lifespan under Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 stress (P<0.05). Finally, the α-lactalbumin-containing composite with the best sleep-improving effect significantly increased sleep duration by 7.97% (P<0.05) and sleep frequency by 59.43% (P<0.05) during developmentally timed sleep, and reduced the movement speed of stress-induced sleep in C. elegans. In conclusion, α-lactalbumin had the strongest effect among the four active substances tested on improving sleep-related oxidative stress in C. elegans, and the mechanism of improving C. elegans sleep was related to mitochondrial repair. Composites containing α-lactalbumin showed sleep-improving effects in C. elegans.
