Neurobiologists at Northwestern University have found that spending one sleepless night can quickly treat depression.<\/p>\n
In their study, the researchers conducted experiments on a number of mice in which they monitored their behaviors and brain activity after mild and severe sleep deprivation, to find that not only was the release of dopamine increased during the period of acute sleep loss, but synaptic plasticity was also enhanced, which led to the brain to maintain a lively mood.<\/p>\n
The Medical Express website reported that the study concluded that sleep deprivation may be an effective treatment for getting rid of feelings of depression.<\/p>\n
In the same context, Professor Yevgenia Kozorovetsky, the lead researcher in the study titled \u2018Dopamine pathways that mediate emotional state shifts after sleep loss\u2019, says: \u201cChronic sleep loss has been well studied, and its harmful effects have been widely and uniformly documented, but Brief sleep loss \u2013 the equivalent of a student staying up all night before an exam \u2013 is less understood.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe found that lack of sleep leads to a powerful antidepressant effect and rewires the brain,\u201d Kozorovetsky added, stressing that \u201ca sleepless night can radically change the brain in less than a few hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
She continued: \u201cWe were interested in identifying specific areas of the brain responsible for behavioral changes, and we wanted to know whether it was a large broadcast signal that affected the entire brain or whether it was something more specialized.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Neurobiologists at Northwestern University have found that spending one sleepless night can quickly treat depression. In their study, the researchers conducted experiments on a number of mice in which they monitored their behaviors and brain activity after mild and severe sleep deprivation, to find that not only was the release of dopamine increased during the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":142941,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-health"],"yoast_head":"\n