Sleep is important: How circadian-timed trauma keeps mice up at day and the societal implications that keep me up at night

Abstract

This thesis centers on the vital process of sleep and its profound influences on various dimensions of human life, with focus on connections between sleep and aspects of well-being. This thesis adopts a multidisciplinary approach, wherein each chapter examines sleep from a different perspective with the goal of fostering a nuanced dialogue on the multifaceted nature of sleep. Chapter I lays the groundwork for understanding sleep's adaptive nature and its essential role in survival, exploring the neurobiology of sleep timing and its functions in promoting physical and mental well-being. The chapter also delves into the causes of sleep disruption and introduces various research methods, setting the stage for subsequent chapters.Chapter II, representing the behavioral perspective of sleep, investigates the effects of contextual fear on circadian rhythms. The study reveals that exposure to a fearful context can re-establish abnormal circadian activity patterns, contributing to an understanding of the intersection between sleep disruptions and conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder. Chapter III, showcasing a computational perspective of sleep, introduces a web-based automated sleep scoring method This tool, utilizing machine learning, exhibits high accuracy in scoring sleep in mice, showcasing its potential to expedite the sleep research process. Chapter IV, using a philosophical perspective of sleep, examines historical biases in sleep research that continue to perpetuate sociocultural disparities. The framework of intersectionality is employed to highlight biases against women and non-White individuals, emphasizing the need of recognizing and accounting for systemic bias in scientific inquiry. The final chapter synthesizes these perspectives to underscore the unique dialogue generated by the juxtaposition of seemingly disparate viewpoints. The interdisciplinary nature of the thesis allows for a comprehensive exploration of sleep, unveiling insights that may be missed when studied in isolation. This approach emphasizes the importance of adopting diverse perspectives to capture the complexities inherent in sleep, promoting inclusivity and representation in scientific exploration. Such unique dialogues that emerged when concurrently considering different viewpoints during the process of researching sleep subsequently pave the way for unique avenues of inquiry, thereby advocating for increased conscious effort to unite different viewpoints in sleep research.