Relationship between sleep deprivation and anxiety: experimental research perspective

Gabriel Natan Pires, Sergio Tufik, Monica Levy Andersen

Sleep deprivation is a condition that is more and more observed in modern society bringing various neurobehavioral effects, being anxious states one of the main problems. Many studies have successfully demonstrated the relationship between sleep deprivation and anxiety in clinical research. As to basic experimentation, various models have been efficiently used in order to evaluate an anxious behavior. However, the same efficacy is not found on basic studies that deal with the relationship between paradoxical sleep and anxiety. The great majority of studies which approach this matter in animal models do not present results that may be applied to clinical practice and this is basically due to two reasons: inconsistency among results and lack of replicability as related to clinical studies. It has to be emphasized that the use of animal models is extremely useful, mainly under experimental conditions which cannot be ethically or plausibly be approached in human beings. So, the present theoretical assay tries to evaluate in a brief and critical manner the applicability of animal models in sleep deprivation under a translational perspective.