A good night’s sleep often sets the stage for a positive day. But for the nearly quarter of American adults struggling with mental illness, a good night’s rest is often elusive.

For patients with psychiatric conditions from addiction to mood disorders such as depression, disrupted sleep can often exacerbate symptoms and make it harder to stay on treatment.

Despite the important role circadian rhythms and sleep play in addiction, neuroscientists like me are only now beginning to understand the molecular mechanisms behind these effects.

Sleep and addictive drugs have an entangled relationship. Most addictive drugs can alter sleep-wake cycles, and sleep disorders in people using drugs are linked to addiction severity and relapse. While this poses a classic “chicken-or-egg” dilemma, it also presents an opportunity to understand how the sleep-addiction connection could unlock new treatments.

At the center of the connection between sleep and mental health lies circadian rhythms: your body’s internal clock.

These rhythms align your bodily functions with your environment, synchronizing your body to day and night down to the molecular level. It does this through........

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