Gamma Aminobutoric Acid, often acronymed as the far simpler term,

Gaba, is a neurotransmitter found in most

mature mammals. This substance helps some mammals reach neural maturity by gusing the premature

brain into building primitive versions of the neuronal networks that will eventually develop

into a fully fleshed-out brain system.

It helps some mammalian nervous systems produce certain types of necessary cells,

bind things to other things, and have been shown, in some cases,

to alleviate certain types of thyroid poisoning,

to suppress inflammation-related immune responses while promoting

more regulatory immune responses. And it seems to increase the secretion of cytokines,

which is a category of proteins that moderate signaling between cells. Gabba also, in mature

mammalian brains, inhibits reception action, which often means

muffling signals sent by the central nervous system to the brain. And that may sound a bit

disconcerting, but it's actually incredibly important if you are a mammal that wants to sleep

at some point. Lacking this nervous system-numbing effect,

your brain would continue throughout the night to make you aware of what the sensors throughout your body are experiencing,

just as it does throughout the day.

These sensors, having their volume knob turned down for a period each night is part of what allows us

not just to get sleep, but to stay asleep and to drop into deeper levels of sleep that,

although we are still sorting out all the specifics of this, seem to be associated with

important neurological health-related processes, like the cleaning of

plaque from the brain, and the systemic revisitation of information learned and experiences

...