Neuroendocrine and Behavioral Correlates of Sleep Deprivation: a Synthesis of Neurobiological and Psychological Mechanisms

Abstract

There is a burgeoning literature related to an alteration in mood and behavioral variables after total or partial sleep deprivation. For example, acute sleep manipulations usually are followed by a temporary improvement in mood in major depression; however, there is a regression to the previous status of depression after any subsequent sleep.1 It is may also be asserted that morning mood improves when REM sleep is intact but worsens after a night of sleep deprivation in normal volunteers2 Given that sleep deprivation results in different treatment responses in normal healthy or depressed subjects, emotional or behavioral concomitants of sleep deprivation correlate with its neuroendocrine bases. In this chapter, firstly, we briefly review neuroendocrine aspects of sleep deprivation in healthy and depressed subjects. Secondly, we look at emotional and behavioral results in response to sleep deprivation in clinical samples. Another aim of this chapter is to try to figure out how these correlates concomitantly interact with each other. Finally, we discuss the therapeutic consequences of sleep deprivation in a within-sleep mood regulation process © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. All rights reserved.