Study Uncovers How Stress Affects Memory, Sleep

It is well known that stress can take a toll on both sleep and memory. To investigate how this happens in the brain, researchers focused on the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus, a brain region already associated with stress responses. In their experiment, they artificially activated PVN neurons in male mice using advanced neurostimulation techniques.

The results were significant: mice with activated PVN neurons not only slept less but also performed worse in memory tasks compared to controls. This suggested a direct link between stress-sensitive brain activity and cognitive and sleep disturbances.

To further examine this connection, the researchers explored whether inhibiting these stress-associated PVN neurons might have the opposite effect. Indeed, when they suppressed the activity of these neurons in stressed mice, memory performance improved and sleep disruptions were slightly alleviated.

Digging deeper into the brain's circuitry, the team discovered that both stress and artificial stimulation of PVN neurons appeared to influence another brain region—the lateral hypothalamus (LH). This finding pointed to a previously unrecognized neural pathway from the PVN to the lateral hypothalamus that could be key in regulating how stress affects memory and sleep.

“These findings suggest that the PVN– lateral hypothalamus neural pathway may be involved in stress-related memory impairment and sleep disruptions,” the authors wrote. They added that this pathway may serve as a target for future research aimed at treating sleep and cognitive deficits in stress-related disorders.

Reference: Role of hypothalamic CRH neurons in regulating the impact of stress on memory and sleep

Alyssa Wiest, John J. Maurer, Kevin T. Beier, Franz Weber, Shinjae Chung

Journal of Neuroscience 9 June 2025, e2146242025; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2146-24.2025