Sleep (and Lack Thereof)
Service
Plarning Parties!
Our service commitment aimed to help out local populations with high rates of both sleep disorders and substance use disorders. We partnered with From Bags to Blankets and coordinator Janis Sims by hosting Plarn Parties, during which we created plastic yarn (plarn) out of used, plastic grocery bags. The plarn is then crocheted by Janis and her team into durable sleeping mats that are distributed to our unhoused neighbors in Atlanta, which provides warmth and comfort to those who need it and keeps plastic out of landfills! Check out the From Bags to Blankets Facebook page to learn more and get involved!
Policy/Advocacy
For our policy meeting, we discussed the passage of Senate Bill 500 that ensured Georgia state and local governments would receive the full amount of money available for allocation from a multistate settlement with the nation’s three major pharmaceutical distributers (Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen) and the opioid manufacturer and marketer Johnson & Johnson that “resolved” litigation over the companies’ roles in facilitating the nation’s opioid epidemic. Georgian governments are meant to use this money to fund opioid treatment and prevention efforts. We reached out to our state representatives to inquire about the status of such efforts.
Our Neuroscience meetings focused on the bidirectional relationship between sleep and drug use. Drugs are commonly used as a sleep-aid (although drug-induced sleep is not as restorative as natural sleep) or to increase arousal following poor sleep, as sleep deprivation is often an obstacle to recovery from substance use disorder. We also discussed various brain circuits and neurotransmitter systems that are involved in both sleep and addiction, and how these systems may be potential therapeutic targets for those in recovery suffering from sleep problems. Below are the research articles that guided our discussions.
