Sleep in hand, and in hand - a double is empty …
Why do some people have trouble sleeping and simply cannot sleep, no matter how hard they try? This is far from an idle question that has long worried scientists. Researchers at the 2nd People's Hospital of Guangdong Province in China have found that white matter distribution in the brain is disrupted in people with insomnia …
Although insomnia is a common disorder, the exact cause is still unknown, according to scientists. It usually occurs in people who are susceptible to daytime fatigue, mood decline, and cognitive impairment.
Neuroscientists decided to investigate the relationship between the distribution of white matter in people with insomnia and the severity of the disorder. White matter is a bundle of axons - long outgrowths of nerve cells that connect one part of the brain to another. Therefore, if the white matter is damaged, individual parts of the brain lose communication with each other.
The study involved 23 patients with primary insomnia, which is due to psychophysiological personality traits, and 30 healthy people. All participants filled out a questionnaire in which they indicated the severity of insomnia, the degree of anxiety and depression. Each subject also underwent an MRI of the brain with diffusion tensor imaging to trace the movement of water along the white matter.
The results showed that compared with the control group, patients with insomnia had significantly reduced white matter integrity in the right brain hemisphere and thalamus. These deviations were also found to be associated with the duration of insomnia and the degree of depression. In this case, the main cause of the violation is the loss of myelin, an electrically insulating sheath around nerve fibers.
Now that we know what is happening to the brain, it will be a little easier to find the key to solving the problem of insomnia …