Good Sleep Could Help Prevent Drug-Seeking Activity

Proper sleep isn’t merely nice to have; it’s essential to good health. The benefits of sleep have long been acknowledged and include fewer illnesses, maintaining a healthy weight, lowering risk for serious illness such as like diabetes and heart disease, reducing stress, improving mood, and thinking more clearly, to name a few.

“Sleep affects almost every tissue in our bodies,” says Dr. Michael Twery, a NIH sleep expert at NIH. “It affects growth and stress hormones, our immune system, appetite, breathing, blood pressure and cardiovascular health.”

Now, a study suggests that treating insomnia might prevent opioid-seeking behavior, even after treatment ends. This is crucial since, according to an article in Science Daily, “Opioids including oxycodone, are used to treat pain, but carry a risk of misuse and opioid dependence in people who use them regularly. In 2021, opioid overdoses killed more than 80,000 people in the United States.”

In this study, scientists conducted insomnia treatments on rats who were experiencing oxycodone withdrawal and discovered that the rats were less likely to seek out drugs after getting better sleep. Scientists are hoping results will be similar in humans, but more study is needed.

Read more here.