Sleeping with lights on 'could cause depression'
Source:Indiareport
Can't sleep without a dim light in the night? Please take note: It could lead to depression, scientists claim.
Neuroscientists at the Ohio State University in the US found that sleeping regularly with a dim light on adversely affects the chemical balance and structure of the brain.
Such a night light, often used in a child's room, seems to interfere with secretion of the hormone melatonin that helps let the body know it is night time, they said.
"Even dim light at night is sufficient to provoke depressive-like behaviours in hamsters, which may be explained by the changes we saw in their brains after eight weeks of exposure,"study co-author Tracy Bedrosian was quoted as saying by the Telegraph.
For example, she said they drank less sugar water.
For their study, the scientists compared two sets of Siberian hamsters-one group that was exposed to a dim light at night and the other which enjoyed complete darkness.
When they examined the hamsters'brains they found those exposed to dim night light had less dense networks of dendritic spines in a part of the brain called the hippocampus.
Dendritic spines are the hairlike growths on brain cells that transmit chemical messages from one cell to another.
Bedrosian, who presented the research at the annual meeting of the American Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, added:"The hippocampus plays a key role in depressive disorders, so finding changes there is significant."
Earlier studies in mice have found that those exposed to bright light at night tend to become depressed and put on weight.
Neuroscientists at the Ohio State University in the US found that sleeping regularly with a dim light on adversely affects the chemical balance and structure of the brain.
Such a night light, often used in a child's room, seems to interfere with secretion of the hormone melatonin that helps let the body know it is night time, they said.
"Even dim light at night is sufficient to provoke depressive-like behaviours in hamsters, which may be explained by the changes we saw in their brains after eight weeks of exposure,"study co-author Tracy Bedrosian was quoted as saying by the Telegraph.
For example, she said they drank less sugar water.
For their study, the scientists compared two sets of Siberian hamsters-one group that was exposed to a dim light at night and the other which enjoyed complete darkness.
When they examined the hamsters'brains they found those exposed to dim night light had less dense networks of dendritic spines in a part of the brain called the hippocampus.
Dendritic spines are the hairlike growths on brain cells that transmit chemical messages from one cell to another.
Bedrosian, who presented the research at the annual meeting of the American Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, added:"The hippocampus plays a key role in depressive disorders, so finding changes there is significant."
Earlier studies in mice have found that those exposed to bright light at night tend to become depressed and put on weight.
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