Sleep

by Scamp Fri Sep 28, 2012 4:50 am

I have thought for some time that stress tends to disrupt sleep and chronic sleep deprivation tends to cause depression.

I happened to hear a talk recently about research along these lines. Here's an extract:

So, for example, are the cognitive deficits you see in mental illness, like schizophrenia, the secondary result of the sleep problems or the primary result of the condition? And what this allows us to do is think about sleep in a new way, as a potential therapeutic target. A great colleague here in Oxford, Dan Freeman, has taken individuals who have paranoia and he's tried to consolidate their sleep. And he has significantly improved their sleep, and the paranoia is reduced by about 50%. So there's a very nice bit of data suggesting; stabilise sleep and you'll actually have an impact on the illness.

Here's a link to the full transcript and audio of the talk.

I think it would be good if people here put this to their doctor or counsellor and then post what they say back here on this forum so that we can discuss this interesting idea.