![]() Today, such disruption is reported in as many as 80% of patients with schizophrenia, and is increasingly recognised as one of the most common features of the disorder. The relationship between mental illness and sleep and circadian rhythm disruption was first described in the late 19th century by the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin. This can have a major impact on our health, with some of the effects described in the table above. In the active phase, when energy expenditure is high and food and water are consumed, organs need to be prepared for the intake, processing and uptake of nutrients.ĭuring sleep, although energy expenditure and digestive processes decrease, many essential activities occur including cellular repair, toxin clearance, memory consolidation and information processing by the brain.ĭisrupting this pattern, as happens with jet-lag, shiftwork, and mental illness breaks down the internal synchronisation of the circadian network and our ability to do the right thing at the right time is greatly impaired. In humans, our physiology is organised around the daily cycle of activity and sleep. ">Video of TED talk summary: Russell Foster - Why do we sleep?Ĭircadian rhythms are innate and hard-wired into the genomes of just about every living thing on the planet. These take energy and all have to be timed to best effect by the millisecond, second, minute and hour of the 24-hour day. Proteins, enzymes, fats, hormones and other compounds have to be absorbed, broken down, metabolised and produced in a precise time window to allow important processes such as growth, reproduction, metabolism, and cellular repair. Thousands of genes have to be switched on and off in order and in concert. For cells to function properly they need the right materials in the right place at the right time. This clock also stops everything happening at the same time and ensures that biological processes occur in the appropriate order. The physiology, metabolism and behaviour of organisms, including us, are aligned to this daily cycle through internal clocks which enable us to effectively “know” the time of day. There have been over a trillion dawns and dusks since life began some 3.8 billion years ago. But how is sleep and mental health actually linked in the brain? To understand this, let us first consider the biology of sleep and circadian rhythms. Despite this, the effects of sleep on mental illness have been largely ignored in the clinic so far. Studies suggest that disrupted sleep such as insomnia could actually help us predict episodes of mental illness and that fixing sleep problems may help treat them. ![]() But an increasing body of scientific evidence is now suggesting that we should turn our attention to one of our most basic functions: sleep. With millions of people suffering from such conditions, it is crucial that we find ways to improve diagnosis and treatment. We are only beginning to unravel the genetic and biochemical basis of mental illness – a vague term including conditions as diverse as anxiety, depression, and mood and psychotic disorders. ![]() Russell Foster, Professor of Circadian Neuroscience, University of Oxford
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