Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Interrupted sleep affects us more than lack of sleep

Being interrupted during sleep is likely to affect your mood more than not getting enough sleep, a study suggests. 

Researchers in USA studied 62 men and women and split them into three experimental conditions. 


Image result for interrupted sleep affects us more than lack of sleep
One group were subject to "forced awakenings" during sleep, others went to bed late and the last group went to sleep uninterrupted. They were analysed over 3 days. 

The group who were regularly woken displayed a "low positive mood" after the first night, however after the second, they had a reduction of 31% in positive mood. 

Those who went to bed later reported a 12% drop in positive mood after the second night. The group also had shorter periods of deep, slow-wave sleep which researchers found to have a significant association with the reduction in positive mood. 

Patrick Finan, professor of psychiatry, said: "When your sleep is disrupted throughout the night, you don't have the opportunity to progress through the sleep stages to get the amount of slow-wave sleep that is key to the feeling of restoration."

No comments:

Post a Comment