Loss of sleep during a critical developmental period: The effects of early life sleep deprivation on the development of later life mental health disorders

Haitjema, Berit (2023) Loss of sleep during a critical developmental period: The effects of early life sleep deprivation on the development of later life mental health disorders. Bachelor's Thesis, Biology.

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Abstract

Sleep is extremely important for our daily functioning and throughout our lives, we spend approximately a third of our time in this state of reduced responsiveness. Currently, increasing numbers of people report sleep problems and at the same time, the prevalence of mental health disorders is at an all-time high. In this thesis, I tried to find a connection between sleep deprivation in early life and mental health disorders in later life. Sufficient sleep during early development plays an important role in brain development, especially in terms of brain plasticity. However, when the brain is deprived of sleep during early development, several molecular mechanisms in the hippocampal region were found to be impacted in rodents. These changes negatively affected brain plasticity. Several mental health disorders have been associated with early life sleep deprivation, and I discuss the findings from ADHD, anxiety, and depression in this thesis. However, the exact mechanisms through which this takes place and the directionality of these effects is still up for debate. Currently not many treatment options focus on the disturbed sleep pattern observed in these pathologies and therefore it is important to further assess the exact mechanisms involved in early life sleep deprivation and following brain changes, to then be able to target specific pathways involved.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor's Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Jorna, L.M.
Degree programme:	Biology
Thesis type:	Bachelor's Thesis
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	29 Jun 2023 13:50
Last Modified:	29 Jun 2023 13:50
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/30106

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