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Scientists have discovered five different types Sleep In humans, each with its own distinct brain activity patterns and impacts Health and behavior, an advance that may be new depression and anxiety Therapy.
Research published in journal PLOS Biologyfound that each of these sleep patterns It was linked to a variety of factors, including lifestyle, mental and physical health and cognitive performance.
“This highlights the importance of considering full picture in a person’s sleep to help physicians make more accurate assessments and guide treatment,” said co-author Aurore Perrault of Concordia University.
“The dominance of mental health markers in most profiles is not surprising given that sleep is one of the five major domains of human functioning known to influence mental health,” said Valeria Kebets, another author of the study.
Until now, most sleep studies have focused on a single aspect such as duration, examining how it relates to a single outcome, such as poor mental health.
However, predicting sleep outcomes based on many different factors has been elusive.
In the new study, scientists assessed data from more than 750 people from the Human Connectome Project dataset, conducting a data-driven analysis of several sleep-related factors.
Scientists can highlight five sleep profiles in total.
The first was generally poor sleep, which was related to worse psychological health, including DepressionAnxiety, and stress.
The second was a sleep type characterized by flexibility, one in which poor sleep was not associated with psychological issues such as attentional difficulties.
The remaining three profiles were more specific, with one characterized almost entirely by sleep duration as shorter duration was associated with poorer cognition in these cases.
Each of these sleep types was found to be associated with a unique brain activity pattern.
The research was possible because the project dataset contained many details about each individual’s sleep characteristics, including brain imaging, psychological and social data.
Using this approach, researchers could find relationships between all of these factors, which had not been done before.
To cite one example, the researchers said that people who fell into the first profile showed higher neural connectivity between subcortical brain regions involved in memory, emotion, and pleasure, as well as brain regions involved in body movement and attention.
Scientists hope that identifying each patient’s profile could allow physicians to provide better personalized treatment and support.
“Sleep is composed of many dimensions, not just how long we sleep. By analyzing more than 700 young adults, we discovered five distinct ‘sleep profiles’ based on sleep duration, presence of interruptions, reported use of sleep medications,” the researchers wrote.
“Each profile had its own specific link to health, lifestyle, and cognition, and even showed unique neuroimaging characteristics using functional MRI,” they wrote in the study.