How the bacteria in your gut manipulate your sleep patterns.

Your gut is linked to your brain in surprising ways, and you may be losing sleep over it. Research into the gut-brain axis reveals that, amazingly, microbes in your gut can affect your mood—and along with that, your sleep patterns. Sleep disorders and depression are common among people with gut problems like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. This association goes both ways: your gut can affect—or be affected by—your mood and sleep patterns.

The idea that your brain can affect your gut seems to imply that you could treat gut problems with psychiatry, which is nutty. Except that it seems to work. Research suggests that cognitive behavioral therapy, which is aimed at the mind, can ease symptoms of IBS—including sleeplessness. What an unexpected way to treat gut problems! Problems with sleep, mood and gut turn out to be inextricably bound together.

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