User:GuillermoArredondo1999/Epigenetics of sleep

Review of 'Sleep Disorder' Article - Week 6 [title of sandbox no longer relevant]
Sleep disorder

Proposal
The article 'Sleep disorder' on Wikipedia lacks any mention about the epigenetic mechanisms that underlie the lack of sleep. The article can be edited by first explaining the epigenetics of sleep (i.e., the epigenetics phenomena involved in transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation within the circadian clock system). After this, the link between stress and sleep will be surmised. The activation of the HPA axis caused by stress can modulate the wake-sleep cycle in different time scales. For example, perinatal stress can cause persistent sleep disorders during adult life via epigenetic mechanisms. Another review paper differentiates between individuals with high sleep reactivity that are more sensitive to stress, and between individuals with low sleep reactivity that are less affected by stress. This differing reactivity, it is said, is caused by epigenetics. Next, the epigenetics of insomnia can be examined, having a large literature. One review argues that insomnia might be influenced by epigenetic phenomena relating both sleep mechanisms and stress-response-related gene environment interactions having an impact on brain plasticity. Finally, sleep apnea can be examined. It is said that include histone modifications, non-coding RNAs, and DNA methylation are epigenetic mechanisms that are involved in sleep apnea. Next, the effects that sleep deprivation has on the epigenome. It is argued that sleep deprivation is related with changes to DNA methylation, histone modifications, and non-coding RNAs. Another paper argues that the lack of sleep may be associated with loss of DNA methylation, which may have an effect on processed related to neuroplasticity and neurodegeneration.

Outline

 * Epigenetics of Sleep
 * Stress and sleep
 * Insomnia
 * Sleep apnea
 * Lack of sleep on the Epigenome