☆ L9: Meditation and Sleep ☆ Flashcards
Why is sleep important?
Maintenance of the brain (clears waste and restores damaged tissue)
Ontogenetic development
Learning and memory processes
Energetically favourable (evolutionarily)
Dreaming
What are the stages of sleep? How do we differentiate these stages?
NREM1: light sleep, alpha and theta waves, slightly lower frequency activities
NREM2: sleep spindles and k complexes, lower frequency activity
NREM3/4: deep sleep/slow wave sleep, delta waves, some spindles
▻ Efficient sleepers (those who sleep greater than 6 hours) spend more time in NREM3
REM: dream stage, HF activity similar to wakefulness, atonia (no movement), normal adults spend ~20% of their sleep in REM
Explain sleep stage cycling during sleep
Sleeper enters N1 and cycles through several sleep stages, with more NREM in the first third of the night and more REM in the last third (about 25% of sleep is REM)
How is sleep affected by aging?
Sleep disturbances are common in the elderly (about 50%) and are often comorbid with other medical problems
As we age, we get less sleep overall, greater sleep latency, and more arousal periods
Describe sleep in the University student.
Around 50 to 60% of university students report poor sleep, around 10% meet criteria for a sleep problem
Poor sleep is linked to less study time and lower GPA
Sleep quality moderated by intrapersonal adjustment, friendship quality, and academic stress
Differentiate primary and secondary insomnia.
Primary insomnia: rare (around 10% of cases)
Secondary/comorbid insomnia: common (around 90% of cases) linked to another medical problem; sleep problems are more common in people with other medical problems
Ex: GAD and secondary insomnia
Differentiate objective and subjective analysis of sleep. What specific techniques are used in each form of analysis? What are the major advantages and disadvantages of each technique?
Sleep education (educate the patient on sleep hygiene)
Advantages:
Disadvantages: not everyone follows the suggestions
Pharmacotherapy
Advantages: very effective for short term treatment
Disadvantages: high risk for toxicity, addiction, withdrawal, memory impairment, driving impairment
Cognitive behavioural interventions
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Meditation
Advantages: safe, inexpensive, widely accessible
Disadvantages: weaker than other EBTs
What do meta-analyses and reviews say about the effects meditation on sleep?
Greatest effect is on perceived sleep quality; meditation appears to alter the patient’s perception of their sleep quality
Smaller effect on total wake time
Greater effect than non-specific active controls like relaxation but does not differ much from EBTs like drugs
How do melatonin and cortisol relate to wakefulness?
Melatonin levels begin to rise several hours before sleep begins.
Cortisol levels coincide with awakening (cortisol awakening response)
What role might arousal play in insomnia?
Individuals with insomnia may be hyperaroused
Arousal is linked to activation of the SNS and HPA axis, which are both possibly affected by meditation
Why might insomnia be affected by the practice of meditation?
Meditation may…
• Lower stress and rebalance cortisol levels
• Stress reduction could be linked to cognition changes, reducing presleep worries and negative cognitions
• Discourage rumination and encourage acceptance
What effect might Vipassana meditation have on sleep in the elderly?
Elderly Vipassana meditators have sleep patterns more similar to young adults (meditation as an anti-ager); sleep changes with age but might change less in meditators
Research by Willoughby Britton and colleagues highlights the complex and bidirectional effects of meditation on sleep. What did Britain et al observe?
Long-term meditation was associated with less sleep; long-term meditators slept less but felt better about their sleep (increased self-reported sleep quality and improved mood)
Meditation decreases slow wave sleep, increases arousal, awakenings, and S1 sleep
What is the default mode network?
What areas are involved in this network?
How might this network contribute to the effects of meditation on sleep?
Neural network involved in…
Self-referential processing and mind wandering
Sympathetic arousal and sleep
Disregulated by depression and insomnia
Affected by meditation
Meditation may affect sleep because it disrupts key neural networks, including the DMN
