Sleepless night can reverse depression for days, study finds

While waking up all night can exhaust you both mentally and physically, an interesting study claims that it can lift your mood for days. In a new study, neurobiologists at Northwestern University in the US induced mild, acute sleep deprivation in mice and then examined their behaviours and brain activity. The new findings, published online in the journal Neuron, could help researchers better understand how mood states transition naturally. It could also lead to a more complete understanding of how fast-acting anti-depressants work and help researchers identify previously unknown targets for new antidepressant medications, Medical Daily reported. “Chronic sleep loss is well studied, and its uniformly detrimental effects are widely documented,” said Professor Yevgenia Kozorovitskiy at the varsity. “But brief sleep loss, like the equivalent of a student pulling an all-nighter before an exam, is less understood. We found that sleep loss induces a potent anti-depressant effect and rewires the brain. This is an important reminder of how our casual activities, such as a sleepless night, can fundamentally alter the brain in as little as a few hours.” Read: Depression is real: Pakistani celebrities talk mental health after Maulana Tariq Jamil's son's death In the research, the team developed a new experiment to induce acute sleep loss in mice that did not have genetic predispositions related to human mood disorders. The experimental setup needed to be gentle enough to avoid causing substantial stress for the animals but just uncomfortable enough to prevent the animals from falling asleep. After a sleepless night, the animals’ behaviour shifted to become more aggressive and hyperactive, compared to controls that experienced a typical night’s sleep. Using optical and genetically encoded tools, the researchers measured the activity of dopamine neurons, which are responsible for the brain’s reward response. They found activity was higher in animals during the brief sleep loss period. While researchers do not fully understand why sleep loss causes this effect in the brain, Kozorovitskiy suspects evolution is at play. “The anti-depressant effect is transient, and we know the importance of a good night's sleep,” she said.” Published in The Express Tribune, February 23rd, 2024.

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