Scientists from Jinan University showed that bright light improved sleep in stressed mice and also identified the neural pathway underlying this effect. The research was published in the journal PLOS Biology.
Bright light therapy is known to improve sleep in people with sleep disorders, but it is unknown how it works and whether it is effective for sleep disorders caused by stress. Researchers have suggested that the lateral habenula part of the brain is responsible for this effect; because this region not only receives light signals from the eyes, but also can affect other parts of the brain that regulate sleep.
In experiments conducted on mice, scientists found that chronic stress led to a prolongation of the slow-wave sleep phase. By exposing the mice to bright light, they were able to normalize their sleep. “Shutting down” the lateral habenula in mice exposed to stress had the same effect. In contrast, activation of this region led to a prolongation of the slow-wave sleep phase in mice not exposed to stress.
Then, by activating different neurons in this region one by one, the researchers discovered cells that play a key role in stress-related sleep disorders. They also found that light-sensitive neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) naturally slowed the firing of neurons in the lateral habenula. This explains why bright light therapy can reduce stress-related disturbances in slow-wave sleep.
The mechanisms discovered by scientists may in the future enable the development of optimal light treatments and possibly pharmacological interventions targeting this pathway.
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