Insomnia and Sleep Quality

Uninterrupted sleep for the amount of time your brain requires, gives you the opportunity to move through all the sleep stages to receive the amount of slow-wave sleep that is key to feeling restored when you awaken. Frequent sleep disruptions is a relatively common occurrence among new parents, health care personnel who are on-call, and individuals with insomnia. A common symptom of insomnia involves negative mood changes, although the biological reasons for this have been unclear. A study by researchers at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine decided to investigate the link between insomnia and a depressed mood. To do this, they brought three groups of healthy participants into the sleep lab for three nights. The results of the study were reported in the journal Sleep.

• The First group were allowed to sleep normally
• The Second group had their usual bedtime delayed
• The third group were awakened on purpose throughout the night