CHAPTER 7: IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP IN MENTAL WELLBEING Flashcards
1
Q
sleep disturbances
A
- any sleep-related problem that disrupts an individual’s normal sleep–wake cycle, including problems with sleep onset, waking from sleep and abnormal behaviour occurring during sleep.
- the disruption may be temporary, occasional or persistent.
2
Q
sleep disorder
A
- when a sleep disturbance is persistent and regularly disrupts sleep
- causing distress or impairment in important areas of everyday life during normal waking hours
- are generally considered serious disturbances to the normal sleep–wake cycle that may impact on the time, amount and/or quality of sleep.
3
Q
primary sleep disorder
A
- is a persistent sleep disturbance that cannot be attributed to another condition (mental health or legal/illegal drugs)
- occurs in its own right and can not be explained by another condition
- e.g: sleep terrors, sleep walking, sleep apnea
4
Q
secondary sleep disorder
A
- involves a sleep disturbance that is a by-product of or results from another condition, or use of substances
- e.g: back pain, bladder problem, anxiety, depression
5
Q
sleep deprivation
A
general term used to describe a state caused by inadequate quantity or quality of sleep either voluntary or involuntary.
* quantity- amount of sleep (objective measure)
* quality- how well we feel we have slept (subjective measure)
6
Q
partial sleep deprivation
A
- involves having less sleep (either quantity or quality) than what is normally required
- may occur periodically or persistently over the short-term or long-term.
- e.g someone may have too little sleep for one or more days, weeks, months and so on.
- most sleep disorders are associated with partial sleep deprivation that occur routinely over a prolonged period.
7
Q
total sleep deprivation
A
- involves not having any sleep at all over a short-term or long-term period: the person stays awake for one or more days or weeks.
- this usually takes place under extreme conditions, such as when people try to break records, often using stimulants to help them stay awake.
8
Q
sleep debt
A
- is the accumulated amount of sleep loss from insufficient sleep.
- the difference between the amount of sleep that is needed to function at an optimal level and the amount a person actually gets.
- e.g: a nightly sleep debt of 60 minutes between Monday and Friday would add up to a total sleep debt of 5 hours.
- generally, after a period of sleep deprivation, only some of the sleep debt needs to be recovered.
9
Q
affective functioning
A
- amplified emotional responses: emotional reactions may be too quick and more intense or exaggerated, often out of proportion to how we would ordinarily react when not sleep deprived.
-
when we haven’t slept well:
- our emotional response threshold can be lowered, increasing our emotional reactivity and making us more likely to overreact to relatively neutral events.
- has a detrimental effect on our ability to sort out the unimportant from the important, and this can lead to poor judgments in relation to our emotional responses.
10
Q
behavioural functioning
A
-
sleep inertia — a temporary period of reduced alertness and performance impairment that occurs immediately after awakening. is a sleep-to-wake transition effect that can follow a poor
night’s sleep, especially if abruptly awoken. -
fatigue — a persistent feeling of tiredness and lack of energy.
- difficulty maintaining concentration, reduced
awareness of the environment, reduced efficiency, slower than normal reaction times and make more mistakes.
- difficulty maintaining concentration, reduced
- the predominant behavioural effect of sleep deprivation over a period of time is excessive sleepiness when awake
- microsleep — a sleep episode that lasts for a few seconds. during a microsleep, a person will briefly close their eyes partially or fully
- increased risk-taking behaviour: researchers have found that pedestrian behaviour is generally riskier when sleep deprived.
11
Q
cognitive functioning
A
- tend to experience lapses in sustained attention and reduced ability to divide our attention on tasks
that require simultaneous attention to multiple sources of information. - tasks often begin well, but performance tends to deteriorate as task duration increases.
- the greater the sleep deprivation, the more likely it is that attention will be impaired and that errors associated with loss of attention will increase. This is even more likely when a task lacks interest or complexity.
- more likely to think in irrational ways, have difficulty making decisions and solving problems that require creative thinking.
- more time to analyse situations and respond physically to events.
- loss of situational awareness and overlook important details.
- impaired learning and memory.
12
Q
circadian rhythm sleep disorders (dsps and aspd)
A
- a group of sleep disorders involving sleep disturbance primarily due to a mismatch between an individual’s sleep–wake pattern and the pattern that is desired or required.
- the disturbance may be caused by:
- a naturally occurring change or a malfunction of biological mechanisms or processes regulating the sleep–wake cycle
- a mismatch between an individual’s sleep–wake cycle and the day–night cycle of their physical environment
- a mismatch between an individual’s sleep–wake cycle and the sleep–wake schedule required by their school, work or social schedule.
- individual usually complains of insomnia, excessive sleepiness or both.
13
Q
delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS)
A
- condition in which the major sleep episode is delayed in relation to the desired sleep time or what is considered a conventional time.
- there is a natural tendency to go to sleep later and therefore wake up later than what is normal according to ‘society’s clock’.
- prominent symptoms: sleep-onset insomnia, difficulty awakening at the desired or necessary time, and excessive sleepiness.
14
Q
dsps cause
A
- DSPS tends to emerge or worsen during adolescence and continue into early adulthood.
- estimates of its prevalence among adolescents and young adults range from 7–15%. It affects both males and females equally.
- DSPS is the most common of all the circadian rhythm phase disturbances. while it involves a circadian rhythm disruption or malfunction, the specific cause of this dysfunction is not entirely understood.
15
Q
advanced sleep phase disorder (ASPD)
A
- a persistent disturbance of the sleep–wake cycle characterised by advance of the major sleep episode to an earlier time compared to desired or conventional sleep times.
- the disorder results in compelling evening sleepiness, early sleep onset, and awakening earlier than the desired or necessary times.
- ASPD is a rare disorder but more common among older people (about 1% of males and females in middle age or older).
- The circadian rhythm and sleep–wake times tend to naturally advance to some degree in older people, which may account for the increased prevalence of the advanced sleep phase in this population.