A third of people report symptoms of insomnia, and 10% meet diagnostic criteria for insomnia disorder. Sleep loss impairs concentration during the day and increases the risk of car accidents. Poor sleep is strongly linked to the development of conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes. Furthermore, sleep disruption may be both a cause and consequence of psychiatric disorders like depression, as well as neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Despite the need to treat sleep disorders, the drugs available are limited by their side effects. By understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating sleep, we may identify new targets for drug development. Studies in model organisms, including mice, zebrafish, and fruit flies, have begun to uncover some of these mechanisms. We aim to translate these findings to humans.
A candidate gene approach will be used to investigate genes implicated in sleep in experimental animals . We aim to assess how variations in these specific genes affect sleep length and the rate of diagnosis of sleep disorders. We will make use of the extensive sleep data from the 500,000 UK BioBank participants, including from questionnaires, activity monitors and clinically coded diagnoses. We may also consider how these gene variants affect other health outcomes.
The data from this project may contribute to selection of targets for new drugs for insomnia.