ABSTRACT
Individuals differ widely in their drug-craving behaviors. One reason for these differences involves sleep. Sleep disturbances lead to an increased risk of substance use disorders and relapse in some, but not all, individuals. While animal studies have examined the general impact of sleep on reward circuitry, few have addressed the role of individual differences in the effects of altered sleep. There does, however, exist a rodent model of individual differences in reward-seeking behavior. In this model, only some rats show the key behavioral traits associated with addiction, including impulsivity and poor attentional control, making this an ideal model system in which to study interactions between sleep and individually distinct reward-seeking behaviors. Here, we support this argument by describing how the limbic neural circuits responsible for individual differences in incentive motivation overlap with those involved in sleep-wake regulation. Consideration of these individual differences in preclinical models would improve our understanding of how sleep interacts with motivational systems, and why sleep deprivation contributes to addiction in only a select group of individuals.