C22: Sleep, psychiatry, and mental health

Sleep plays important regulatory functions for brain plasticity of those areas involved in mood, emotion and cognition across the lifespan. Sleep also may play and important role in regulating stress and inflammatory system and thus contributing to mental health. On the other hand sleep disturbances may play a role in mental disorders and in particular there are robust data about insomnia as a risk factor for anxiety, mood disorders, substance use disorder and for suicidal ideation and behaviors. Similarly circadian rhythms disorders play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of wide spectrum of mental disturbances and during the last few years  has also emerged an important role of nightmares in mood anxiety and suicidal risk.