Understanding the Role of Sleep in PTSD

Dr. Carlezon leads behavioral genetic work on the interactions of sleep and stress-related psychiatric disorders. Stress is implicated in the pathophysiology of major depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. These conditions share core features, including motivational deficits, heightened anxiety, and sleep dysregulation.

Stress is implicated in the pathophysiology of major depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. These conditions share core features, including motivational deficits, heightened anxiety, and sleep dysregulation. Chronic stress produces these same features in rodents, with some individuals being susceptible or resilient, as seen in humans. While stress-induced neuroadaptations within the nucleus accumbens are implicated in susceptibility-related dysregulation of motivational and emotional behaviors, their effects on sleep are unclear.

Sleep alterations that forecast depressive illness include increased total time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, decreased latency to first REM bout, and increased REM density. Conversely, standard antidepressants have REM-suppressive effects, and REM deprivation has antidepressant effects. These observations raise the possibility that sleep dysregulation represents a biomarker for risk of depressive illness. Stress—a major precipitating factor for MDD and posttraumatic stress disorder—causes profound sleep dysregulation in humans and laboratory animals, suggesting that studies of interactions between sleep and stress have high translational relevance.

Researchers in the SPARED Conte Center use a state-of-the art remote telemetry method to record EEG, EMG, activity, and temperature from untethered mice on a 24 h/d, undisturbed basis.

Image taken from McCullough et al., 2020.