New York, November 3: Despite the mental and physical exhaustion associated with staying awake all night, an intriguing study suggests that it can boost your mood for several days.

In a recent study, neurobiologists at Northwestern University in the United States deliberately induced mild, short-term sleep deprivation in mice and observed their behaviors and brain activity.

During the period of acute sleep loss, not only did the release of dopamine increase, but synaptic plasticity was also enhanced, essentially rewiring the brain to maintain an uplifted mood for the following days.

These novel findings, published online in the Neuron journal, could provide insights into the natural transitions of mood states and contribute to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind fast-acting antidepressants, such as ketamine. It may also help researchers discover previously unknown targets for new antidepressant medications.

"Chronic sleep loss is extensively studied, and its consistently harmful effects are well-documented," stated Professor Yevgenia Kozorovitskiy at the university. "But brief sleep loss, akin to a student pulling an all-nighter before an exam, is less understood. We found that sleep loss induces a potent antidepressant effect and rewires the brain. This is an important reminder of how our everyday activities, like a sleepless night, can fundamentally alter the brain in just a few hours," Kozorovitskiy added.

For the research, the team devised a new method to induce acute sleep loss in mice without genetic predispositions related to human mood disorders. The setup was designed to be gentle enough to avoid causing significant stress to the animals but just uncomfortable enough to prevent them from falling asleep.

Following a sleepless night, the animals' behavior shifted to become more aggressive, hyperactive, and hypersexual compared to the control group that experienced a normal night's sleep. Using optical and genetically encoded tools, the researchers measured the activity of dopamine neurons, responsible for the brain's reward response, and found increased activity in animals during the brief period of sleep loss.

Although the exact reasons for the brain's response to sleep loss remain not fully understood, Kozorovitskiy speculates that evolution may play a role.

Kozorovitskiy also cautioned against using sleepless nights as a means to improve one's mood, emphasizing that the antidepressant effect is temporary and underscoring the importance of a good night's sleep.

"I would suggest that you are better off hitting the gym or going for a nice walk. This new knowledge becomes more significant when matching a person with the right antidepressant," she advised.