Developmental changes in sleep and their relationships to psychiatric illnesses

Abstract

Sleep provides a rich source of information to gain insight into both the healthy and disturbed processes of brain function and maturation. Emerging data suggest that the investigation of slow wave activity is a novel and promising tool for monitoring both of these processes. It is important to understand when and how deviations from typical developmental sleep alterations occur in order to improve prevention and early treatment of disorders affecting a substantial number of children and adolescents.

Differential activation of immune factors in neurons and glia contribute to individual differences in resilience/vulnerability to sleep disruption

“…Interestingly, humans and animals face a variety of challenging environmental conditions that can dramatically impact sleep and sleep quality. Sleep disruption, by itself, can result in cognitive impairment [5–7], increased emotional reactivity [8], increased risk-taking [9] and may be a contributing factor for developing depression and other psychiatric illnesses [10]. Given the well documented observation that individuals vary greatly in their resilience/vulnerability to sleep loss [11], it seems likely that sleep disruption may enhance the vulnerability to individuals exposed to threatening or challenging conditions.…”

Sleep in adolescence: Physiology, cognition and mental health

“…In addition, we review how sleep actively supports waking cognitive functioning in adolescence. Though this review is focused on sleep in healthy adolescents, the striking comorbidity of sleep disruption with nearly all psychiatric and developmental disorders (for reviews see 1,2 ) further highlights the importance of understanding the determinants and consequences of adolescent sleep for the developing brain. Figure 1 illustrates the overarching themes of our review, linking brain development, sleep development, and behavioral outcomes.…”

Sleep spindles and cognition in depression

“…A meta study that matches potential development and decline of sleep spindle activity to the observed susceptibility and prevalence of MDD at certain ages throughout life (Jorm, 2000) is still missing. However such limitations also exist for most altered sleep activity and age-dependent alterations have yet to be matched accurately to sleep diseasespecific onset patterns (Tesler et al, 2013). Thus the influence or role of age in neurological disorders, including MDD, are difficult to disentangle from normal or pathological changes in sleep architecture.…”

“…Despite these well-known MDD-related disruptions of sleep as well as of memory, the evidence is surprisingly limited when it comes to memory processing mechanisms during non-REM sleep and their contribution to memory impairments within this disorder. Some investigations on the development of MDD in relation to particularly slow-wave activity were undertaken hinting to increased SWA in depressed adolescents (Tesler et al, 2013(Tesler et al, , 2016. Similarly detailed investigations for this disorder on the role of sleep spindles are still lacking.…”

“…Indeed, effects of antidepressants on REM sleep architecture have long and consistently been reported (Chen, 1979). Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) alter REM sleep but have not demonstrated any effect on non-REM aspects like spindles or slow wave activity (Rasch et al, 2009;Nicholson and Pascoe, 1988;Saletu et al, 1991;Tesler et al, 2013). In contrast, serotonin-norepinephrine-reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs, and most tricyclic antidepressants) increase (fast, >13 Hz) sleep spindle amounts and densities in non-REM as well as stage 2 sleep proportion (Rasch et al, 2009).…”