Over the years there has been growing interest among the scientific community in investigating
sleep and how it affects the memory and other brain functions. It is now well established that
sleep helps in memory consolidation and induction of neural plasticity and that short-term
deprivation of either total sleep or rapid eye movement sleep alone can induce memory deficits
very quickly. Quantitative and qualitative changes in sleep architecture after different
training tasks further suggest that discrete memory types may require specific sleep stage s
for optimal memory consolidation and studies indicate that sleep deprivation alters synaptic
plasticity and membrane excitability in the hippocampal neurons and synaptic up-scaling in the
cortical neurons. Further sleep alteration during pregnancy may increase the risk of
depression and adversely affect maternal-child relationships parenting practices family
functioning and children's development and general wellbeing. This book coherently discusses
all these aspects with a particular focus on the possible role of sleep in memory
consolidation and synaptic plasticity. It also highlights the detrimental effects of sleep loss
on mental health the immune system and cognition. This book is a valuable reference resource
for students and researchers working in the area of sleep memory or neuronal plasticity.
