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An isolated night with little or no sleep seems to produce a “punch-drunk” state with accompanying mood elevation that lasts for days afterward.  Northwestern University neurobiologists report this seemingly paradoxical effect after reproducing this common human situation in a preclinical mouse model.

After inducing acute sleep deprivation in the animals, analysis shows increased brain dopamine release and enhanced synaptic plasticity.  This biochemical brain rewiring is associated with a persistent happier mood which the animals evidence by hyperactivity and hypersexuality.

The researchers remind us that chronic sleep deprivation is harmful so pulling repeated all nighters is not a strategy for treating a persistent gloomy outlook let alone clinical depression.  On the other hand, the effects of an isolated sleepless night may represent the persistence of a phenomenon whereby animals and prehistoric humans reacted with a predator threat with persisting vigilance and the ability to fight or quickly flee.

https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(23)00758-4

#mood #depression #sleepdeprivation #dopamine #hyperactivity