About this Research Topic

Background

Each of us spend almost a third of our life asleep. Sleep is a necessary physical need in human life. After sleep, the tired nerve cells and the biological characteristics of long-distance signal transmission recover normal physiological function. In general, precise control of the sleep process is the basis of normal life process including blood, metabolism, immune, endocrine, and brain activity, and is key to plasticity formation, information processing, and function implementation. Sleep has played a minor role as object of research for a long time. Yet, recently there is a growing public interest in sleep.

Sleep disorder is a major public health problem and widespread in today’s society. In modern society, more and more people underwent an increased curtailment of daily sleep because of work overtime, exam preparation, night shift, shift working and long-term working or driving, resulting in an increased incidence of sleep disorders. The disturbed and/or interrupted sleep may be associated with a number of clinical conditions and has a detrimental effect on attention, working memory, executive functioning, emotion, or even metabolism. Nowadays, important challenges are posed to sleep disorders for which approved treatments are of limited efficacy.

Although there is surprising upsurge in neuroimaging findings in addressing the brain structural and functional changes associated with sleep disorders and circadian disruption, it is still difficult to glean a consistent story about its neuropathology of brain alterations. Therefore, a more comprehensive understanding of brain structural and functional changes associated with sleep disorders and circadian disruption are needed.

The current Research Topic welcomes leading experts in the field to summarize their research in a way that should attract the broader readership of the journal. Together with these articles, we hope this Research Topic contributes to a better understanding of the link between brain and sleep disorders, and offers an up-to-date view on how sleep affects our brain. We believe this Research Topic will stimulate discussions in a wider public not only involving those working in the field, since both conditions cause an extreme impairment of quality of life, in particular in those patients suffering from both conditions. We welcome investigators to submit original research articles and reviews to this Research Topic.

We welcome manuscripts of the follow pathologies, but not limited to:
• Insomnia
• Sleep Restriction such as Sleep deprivation
• Shift-Work Sleep Disorders
• Hypersomnia
• Circadian Disorders
• Short Sleep
• Obstructive sleep apnea
• Behavioral and Psychotherapeutic Treatments for Sleep Disorders
• Sleep Disorder in Medical Illness

Investigated using the following techniques, but not limited to:
• EEG/ERP
• Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), such as functional connectivity, regional homogeneity (ReHo), amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF), small-world network (SWN)
• Optogenetics
• Arterial spin labeling (ASL)
• Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)
• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMs)
• Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
• Voxel-based morphometry (VBM), Cortical thickness
• Positron emission tomography (PET), such as PET-CT and PET-MRI
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Acupuncture
• Moxibustion

Keywords: Sleep Disorder, Circadian rhythm, Insomnia, Sleep deprivation, Obstructive sleep apnea, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Optogenetics, Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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