Prolonged insomnia will affect the mood

A sleepless night can make us irritable and moody. However, there is a lesser known effect of insomnia for a long time, which is excitement in the short term. People who suffer from insomnia for a long time will not be alert enough when judging or evaluating a problem and they are also more likely to go into the path of addiction than the average person, according to new research results of the home Scientific work at University of Berkeley, California, USA.

Researchers at the University of UC, Berkeley and Harvard Medical School, USA, have been studying brain activity in healthy young people and they have found that these young people show excitement in short term after a sleepless night. However, it is also the short-term stimuli created by "a sleepless night ", which has affected the nervous area responsible for creating emotions when people: receive rewards, excitement and motivation, This can also cause insomnia for risky behaviors.

" For a healthy person, getting enough sleep, his brain will be active, he can easily make accurate judgments, his brain will easily detect sensitive points. Depending on the mood, we can observe the color of the brainwave signals that are active through specialized devices, but when sleep is deprived, the brain will behave unstable, do limit your ability to concentrate, and you will not be able to make wise decisions now, "said Matthew Walker, associate professor of psychology and neurology, working at UC Berkeley University, USA , and is the main author of this study.

The results of this study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience , published on March 22, emphasize the need to sleep well and sound enough, no matter what situation you are in. more, according to Matthew Walker.

"We need to make sure that people make important decisions in their daily work, whether they're health professionals, airline pilots, or new parents. They all have to get enough sleep and sleep , "Walker said. "Based on this evidence, I am really worried about myself, when I get health care by an emergency room doctor during 20 hours of not sleeping, and whether this doctor is making appropriate decisions. my health . "

Our bodies alternate between the two main stages of night sleep: rapid eye movement (REM): when the body and brain work to promote dreams, the period of non-rapid eye movement (NREM): when the muscles and brain rest. Previous studies on the brain have shown that people with insomnia often result in unstable brain function, serious loss of balance.

The problem is why so many people who are depressed feel better after a sleepless night, at least temporarily, researchers use functional magnetic resonance imaging, to Study the brains of 27 young adults, half of whom sleep through the night and the other half stay awake all night.

Both of these youth groups were shown a lot of images, including pleasant images (eg, rabbits or jam cream), and then the researchers asked the two groups to evaluate the images according to criteria: either neutral or positive.

In general, the group of young people who stayed up all night gave more positive assessments to all images, while the youth group who had gone through a good night's sleep and had enough rest, gave a moderate rating. more in terms of scores.

Furthermore, brain scans of people who are awake throughout the night show an increase in activity in the mesolimbic pathway, the brain vessels controlled by the chemical compound dopamine, an adjustable neurotransmitter. Positive emotions, motivation, sexual desire, drug addiction, craving and decision making.

According to the positive trend, the implicit link to strengthening the dopamine chemical compound in the short term may seem favorable, but it can actually make people impulsive decisions, because they feeling too optimistic, Walker said.

Findings based on previous research by Matthew Walker and his team suggest that when someone loses sleep or doesn't sleep enough, the person's brain will " shut down " the area that plays the key planning role. The brain's key and decision-making area is the frontal cortex, while strengthening the activation of primitive nerve functions such as fighting or reflexes in the amygdala of the brain.

The latest research shows a similar " shut down " phenomenon that disconnects between the prefrontal cortex and the misolimbic path after a sleepless night: "After a good sleep, frontal lobes are connected. strong with brain areas that are involved in regulating behavioral responses to stimulation, activating reward sensations, or creating motives and enhancing neurotransmission through chemical compounds dopamine, but this phenomenon will not happen after a sleepless night , "Walker said.

When applying a therapy for people who are suffering from clinical depression, it is not feasible to give patients a good night's sleep or make them sleepless, according to Walker: "insomnia." It is like a piece of elastic rubber being stretched, until a piece of rubber is broken at the same time , "he said.

In addition to Matthew Walker, co-authors of this study include: Ninad Gujar, a leading scientific researcher, working at UC Berkeley lab; In addition, Seung-Schik Yoo, associate professor of radiology, worked at Harvard Medical School, and Peter Hu, a graduate student in psychology at the University of Chicago.