hypnotoxin

English

Noun

hypnotoxin (plural hypnotoxins)

A hypothetical waste product of the brain proposed by Henri Piéron that causes fatigue and is cleansed by sleep.
- 1950 April 3, Robert Coughlan, “Sleep, and How to Get More of It”, in LIFE, volume 28, number 14, page 126:
  Yet, because of its apparent common sense, the hypnotoxin idea remained attractive until Dr. Kleitman's studies of the temperature cycle.
- 1987, Nathaniel Kleitman, Sleep and Wakefulness, page 352:
  Legendre and Piéron ( 2402-13 ), having obtained what they called "hypnotoxin" ( p. 203 ) from animals kept awake for a long time, did not attribute the onset of sleep to the direct action of hypnotoxin but to an inhibition of the CNS, the hypnotoxin thus acting as an accessory influence
- 2004, Clete A. Kushida, Sleep Deprivation: Basic Science, Physiology and Behavior, page 35:
  This suggested that either there were other influences that held the effects of hypnotoxin at bay in the morning or the steady buildup of hypnotoxin could not completely explain the waxing and waning nature of sleepiness.
- 2011, Rob Lubitz, Breaking Free, page 65:
  The problem was that nobody could isolate the exact chemical that caused the sleep, the mysterious hypnotoxin.
A venom found in the nematocysts of some cnidarians that acts as a central nervous system depressant leading to inactivity, numbness, paralysis, and coma.
- 1910, Otto Charles Glaser, The Nematocysts of Eolids, page 136:
  On the other hand, the evidence that there is present in nettles another poison, the hypnotoxin, responsible for the paralysis of punctured animals, seems well grounded.
- 1957, Bruce. W. Halstead, “Jellyfish Stings and their Medical Management”, in United States Armed Forces Medical Journal, volume 8, number 11, page 1600:
  According to Portier and Richet, hypnotoxin is believed to be a heat-sensitive, nondialyzable toxin with protein properties.
- 2005, Dev Raj Khanna, P. R. Yadav, Biology of Coelenterata, page 203:
  The capsule is full of a poisonous fluid, the hypnotoxin which contains proteins and about 75% as virulent as cobra venom.
- 2019, 26 Years' Chapterwise Solved Papers AIIMS Specialist Biology, page 29:
  Nematocysts or stinging cells are specialised organelles which act for defence and offence of Hydra. Each nematocyst is filled with a poisonous fluid called hypnotoxin. Hypnotoxin is a chemical combination of phenols and proteins.

Usage notes

While the theory that "hypnotoxin" causes sleep has now been debunked, researchers have found that one of the functions of sleep is to cleanse the build-up of waste products from neurotransmitters.

Translations

French: hypnotoxine m