Editorial: Sleep and Mood Disorders

Abstract

Editorial on the Research Topic Sleep And Mood DisordersSleep occupies almost one third of our life and it is necessary for survival of all species, including man. There is little doubt that sufficient, restorative sleep plays a critical role in maintaining physical and mental health. Evaluation of a good sleep always includes its quality, timing, quantity and rhythm. Sleep disturbances, including hypersomnia, insomnia, or irregular sleep patterns, result in various cognitive impairments and mood disorders (1, 2). Prolonged sleep deprivation or chronic sleep abnormalities are risk factors for the major depressive disorder (MDD) (3) and bipolar disorder (BD) (4), whereas disturbed sleep appears as a key symptom of mental diturbances (5, 6). Mechanisms connecting sleep deprivation and mood disorders remain, however, unclear.The current Research Topic represents a collection of papers investigating the relationship between sleep abnormalities and mood disorders, as well as studies analyzing potential mechanisms connecting these pathologies. As described in the review by Steardo et al., the worldwide prevalence of sleep disorders is about 50% with even higher occurrence in psychiatric population. Sleep abnormalities are frequently associated with BD and are often a good predictor of a mood disorders. In this review, the alterations in the structure or duration of sleep are considered in all stages of BD. In particular the role of neuroglia in BD and the contributions of the different types of glial cells to BD and sleep abnormalities are discussed in depth. Specially, astrocytes are suggested to have an important role to the pathophysiology of BD through the loss of glial support and neuroprotection in disease-specific regions (7,8). Furthermore, neuroglia cells are also reported to be a key target for the drugs used for the treatment of BD.In the article by Li Y. et al., the relationship between stressful life events and sleep quality is discussed. The effects of stress on the sleep quality was investigated on more than 1,000 college students from a single province in China high correlation between scores of stressful life events and sleep quality has been reported. These results demonstrate that stressful life events can disturb the sleep quality of college students directly and indirectly, through rumination. The latter is defined as a response style that an individual tends to repeatedly think about the problematic situations being focused on negative emotions (9). Increasing psychological resilience could decrease both the direct and indirect effects stressful life events.

Insomnia Symptoms in Patients With Substance Use Disorders During Detoxification and Associated Clinical Features

“…We detected a high prevalence of insomnia symptoms (66.5%) in the early stages of substance withdrawal in patients admitted to a hospital detoxification unit. This rate is higher than the rates of 20-35% reported for the general population (2-6) and similar to rates described for patients with other psychiatric disorders (7)(8)(9)(10)(30)(31)(32). In a previous study, we found that 84.3% of addicted patients experienced insomnia symptoms during active consumption of substances (28).…”

Clinical and instrumental features in 82 patients with insufficient sleep syndrome

“…The prevalence of depression (17%) and anxiety (8.5%) was beyond the expected for a group of employed young adults, suggesting an association of ISS with these disorders and possibly implying a common pathophysiology, both at a biological (Liu et al, 2018; Malhi & Mann, 2018; Nandam et al, 2020; Qin et al, 2016) and a psychological level (Li et al, 2016; Ruggiero et al, 2018). Moreover, chronic sleep deprivation is known to provoke mood disorders, depressive and/or manic, often associated with anxious symptoms, irritability, cognitive impairment and disinhibition (Fang et al, 2019; Lewis et al, 2017; Riemann et al, 2020; Verkhratsky et al, 2020).…”

Exploration of Sleep as a Specific Risk Factor for Poor Metabolic and Mental Health: A UK Biobank Study of 84,404 Participants

“… 42 An underlying mechanism is that sleep deprivation can induce neuroinflammation including the activation of leucine-rich repeat protein-3 inflammasome, which then induces depressive-like behaviours, mood disorder and cognitive diseases. 43–45 The risk of hypertensive diseases increased by 36% among the extreme short sleepers. This supports the Sleep Heart Health Study, which showed that <6 hours of sleep increased the prevalence of hypertension by 66%.…”