Tokyo Bay Urayasu/Ichikawa Medical Center, Japan.
J Physiol Anthropol. 2011;30(1):1-8. doi: 10.2114/jpa2.30.1.
This article reviews evidence supporting the hypothesis that suicide rates in Japan could be reduced by elevating serotonin levels via increasing the average duration of sleep. Seven major relevant findings were apparent in the literature: 1) Sleep loss is associated with suicide, but the direction of causality is equivocal. 2) Decreased serotonergic activity may be involved in suicidal behavior. 3) Sleep debt may decrease serotonergic activity. 4) The suicide rate in Japan has remained at a heightened level for the past 12 years. 5) The average sleep duration in Japan has decreased over the past 40 years. 6) The average sleep duration in Japan is among the lowest in the world. 7) The average sleep duration in Japan plateaued in 1995 and has been relatively stable since. From the research reviewed, two major problematic issues were apparent: 1) Most people in Japan receive inadequate sleep. 2) Individuals whose sleep is inadequate are unlikely to be sufficiently physically active to stimulate serotonergic systems to a desirable level. I propose that public health initiatives encouraging a longer duration of sleep may provide a relatively simple way of addressing the disturbing current trend in Japan. The combination of actigraph and brain serotonin level measurement could allow large population-based cohort studies to be designed, to elucidate the causal links between sleep duration, serotonin levels, and suicide rates.
这篇文章回顾了一些证据，这些证据支持了这样一种假设，即通过延长平均睡眠时间来提高血清素水平，可以降低日本的自杀率。文献中有 7 个主要的相关发现：1）睡眠不足与自杀有关，但因果关系尚不清楚。2）血清素活性降低可能与自杀行为有关。3）睡眠债可能会降低血清素活性。4）过去 12 年来，日本的自杀率一直处于较高水平。5）过去 40 年来，日本的平均睡眠时间一直在减少。6）日本的平均睡眠时间是世界上最低的之一。7）日本的平均睡眠时间在 1995 年达到顶峰，此后一直相对稳定。从回顾的研究中，可以明显看出两个主要的问题：1）大多数日本人睡眠不足。2）睡眠不足的人不太可能有足够的体力活动来刺激血清素系统达到理想水平。我提出，鼓励延长睡眠时间的公共卫生措施可能是解决日本当前令人不安的趋势的一种相对简单的方法。活动记录仪和大脑血清素水平测量的结合，可以设计出基于大量人群的队列研究，以阐明睡眠时间、血清素水平和自杀率之间的因果关系。
