Insomnia on the Brain

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http://time.com/4282023/this-is-what-happens-to-your-brain-on-no-sleep/

An article posted by Time Magazine online, discussed the impact of insomnia or lack of sleep on the parts of the brain that regulate cognition, emotion and sensory processes. A study was done that focused on white matter in the brains of a group of people with insomnia and a group of healthy sleepers. The study found that people with insomnia had less white matter connectivity than those without insomnia. Researchers have suggested that this disruption in signals is triggered by thinning of the myelin surrounding the neurons.

This study is novel and relevant research. Many people, including myself, experience insomnia and are not aware of what is actually going on in the brain during insomnia.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 29, 2016 at 12:56 AM

    This article was very informative because I too suffer from lack of sleep and seem to always be fatigued during the day. To think that insomnia could be caused by a decrease in white matter connectivity is surprising. I did not realize how important myelin was until this article because we only spoke about it in class when discussing cells and how those who suffer from multiple sclerosis have a decrease in their myelin sheaths. Now knowing that this can cause insomnia further instills in me how important the role that myelin plays in our bodily functions.

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  2. UnknownNovember 29, 2016 at 2:34 AM

    This article was very interesting to read considering that lack of sleep can highly impact a person in many ways. There should be more studies in how sleep and white matter specifically correlate with emotion and whether it correlates with a certain mental disease, such as depression. It would also be interesting to see whether if someone with insomnia that worked on their sleep schedule, would be able to regain myelin and increase white matter to restore the connectivity between neurons. Myelin has a vital role in our brain functioning and it is important to make sure we do not abuse the myelin connectivity we possess.

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