Study provides first evidence of neural link between sleep loss and psychiatric disorders

National Institutes of Health, American Academy of Sleep Medicine ^ | 10/22/07 | University of California - Berkeley

[Quix]

THANKS TONS

[crazyshrink]

Just out of curiosity, do you have a TV in your sleeping quarters or were you trying to sleep in another venue such as on a sofa or recliner?

[ejonesie22]

I was diagnosed 2 years ago, after years of seeing shrinks and such for memory and anger issues. Finally found a non quack. Biggest difference in the world after just a couple of weeks on CPAP.

Wife noticed that soon.

[aruanan]

Did he lose weight just before or after the surgery? The loss of a few lbs for most people will make a big difference I am told.

Not really. That's what was weird about it.

[Yaelle]

I hate to be such a stickler for grammar but I believe you left out a word in your sentence below. I inserted it for you.

The MSM always said that Bill Clinton did not sleep... just worked it 24 hours a day.

[RightWhale]

The article is about their new toy, the fMRI.

[Old Professer]

I sleep on a sofa with three pillows propped behind my shoulders and head - chronic sinus drainage condition.

I awaken if I slide down a bit.

[Gondring]

The article is about their new toy, the fMRI.

New? Dr. Walker has been publishing fMRI stuff with them for years (albeit while still based at Harvard), and they got their fMRI setup in 2001!

Of course, it's usually called functional (not functioning), as opposed to structural MRI, so I wonder how trustworthy the reporting is.

[Gondring]

They haven't learned much with their new, expensive tool, but they have to report something to back up the original justification or they won't get funding for the next super-neato tech gadget.

This does seem to be rather simple experiment writeup (and I suspect that its publication has less to do with the "new toy" than it does with a student research project completion, or the need for Dr. Walker to publish something now that he's at Berkeley :-), and it is subject to the typical criticisms of fMRI studies, but it does have important implications for future research.

For example, I'd like to see the results of subjects on modafinil (Provigil). If we hop up our soldiers on modafinil for vigilance, for example, might we also have to compensate for emotions...that is, will their amygdala (amygdalae?) be more active and make them more likely to overreact--perhaps leading to a Haditha-like situation, but real this time? Or will drivers using modafanil be more likely to get road rage? And that's just one practical direction this research could go.

I am not a physician, but I have a strong suspicion that sleep is tied in closely with many psychiatric disorders. Many of them are exacerbated by sleep deprivation, and some have symptoms that are remarkably close. For example, an ADD sufferer has suggested that a person could stay awake for several days and then try to focus on a task and accomplish it, and he would get a good feeling for what having ADD is like. Similarly, note the effects of stress and anxiety and how they can be similar to sleep deprivation.

[Cold Heart]

Evaporation came first as well as the egg. There, now you can get some sleep:)

[Raycpa]

Exodus 23:12
Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.