Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: The neurobiology of sleep and substance abuse interconnects, such that alterations in one process have consequences for the other. Acute exposure to drugs of abuse disrupts sleep by affecting sleep latency, duration, and quality [ 1 ]. With chronic administration, sleep disruption becomes more severe, and during abstinence, insomnia with a negative effect prevails, which drives drug craving and contributes to impulsivity and relapse. Sleep impairments associated with drug abuse also contribute to cognitive dysfunction in addicted individuals. Further, because sleep is important in memory consolidation and the process of extinction, sleep dysfunction might interfere with the learning of non-reinforced drug associations needed for recovery. Notably, current medication therapies for opioid, alcohol, or nicotine addiction do not reverse sleep dysfunctions, and this may be an obstacle to recovery [ 2 , 3 ]. Whereas exposure to drugs of abuse is causal to sleep dysfunctions that further promote chronic use, sleep disorders in turn are risk factors for substance abuse and their severity can predict the prognosis of substance use disorders (SUD) [ 4 ]. Sleep disruption results in a cumulation of risk factors that drive drug abuse, including increasing the sensitivity to pain, acting as a stressor, and biasing toward a negative effect. Recognizing and treating sleep disorders may be an important preventive measure against future drug misuse and SUD. Despite convergent evidence linking sleep and substance abuse, and the therapeutic potential that can emerge from elucidating the biology underlying this link, this has been a relatively neglected area of research. A first step in advancing this area is to identify how the circuits and substrates that regulate sleep and arousal intersect with those that mediate reward and also how they are targeted by drugs of abuse.
Source: Neuropsychopharmacology
Authors: Rita J. Valentino, Nora D. Volkow
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,760
Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse
OpenAlex ID: W2956710261