According to a new study, your bad mood may be down to lack of quality sleep, rather than lack of quantity.
Published in the journal Sleep, the study found that people whose sleep was frequently interrupted for 3 consecutive nights reported significantly worse mood than those who had less sleep due to later bedtimes.
Lead study author Patrick Finan, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and colleagues say their findings indicate sleep interruption is more detrimental than lack of sleep, which ma
y shed light on the association between depression and insomnia. According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults aged 18-64 should aim to get around 7-9 hours of sleep each night, while those 65 and older should get around 7-8 hours of sleep nightly. The foundation says getting enough sleep can boost the immune system, productivity and mood.
But increasingly, studies are showing that the quality of sleep is just as important as duration of sleep. “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,” notes Finan.
The research team found that lack of slow-wave sleep among the interrupted sleep group was significantly associated with the reduction in positive mood, and that disturbed sleep impacted certain aspects of positive mood, including friendliness and feelings of sympathy.
“Many individuals with insomnia achieve sleep in fits and starts throughout the night, and they don’t have the experience of restorative sleep,” explains Finan. “You can imagine the hard time people with chronic sleep disorders have after repeatedly not reaching deep sleep,”
He notes, however, that further studies are warranted to gain a better understanding of the sleep stages experienced by people with insomnia.
November 3, 2015