You can only sleep in a completely dark room, experts warn If you sleep in not enough dark room it may eventually develop depression, researchers warn. Neuroscientists believe: even the night light or dusky light that penetrates into the room affects the chemical balance and structure of the brain.
Such light breaks hormone release melatonin, which helps the body to understand that it was night and go to sleep. A group of scientists from Ohio State University conducted experiments with two groups of hamsters. One group was subjected to ambient light exposure at night, and another group was sleeping in complete darkness.
Tracy Bedrozian, one of the sponsors of research, states: "Even the dim light strongly affects the hamsters, causing the development of depressive behavior. This is due to changes in the brain after several weeks of such a light action. Depression manifested itself, in particular, is that animals did not drink sweetened water. "
Impact analysis of the brain showed: hamster, sleeping with the light, had a less dense network of dendritic spines in the brain called the hippocampus. Dendritic spines are similar to hair sprouts on the brain cells that transmit chemical messages from one cell to another. In this case, the hippocampus plays a key role in depressive disorders, so any changes in its structure is very important