Scientists have identified five different “sleep profiles.”
Based on their analysis, the researchers concluded that good sleep involves more than just how long you sleep or whether you get enough sleep. Both genes and emotional states such as depression, anxiety, stress, and sadness contribute to sleep quality, and each sleep profile is related to how well people function in different ways, researchers reported in a study published Oct. 7 in the journal PLOS Biology.
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Scientists know that people who are sleep-deprived have a much higher risk of developing depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease, and cognitive impairment, and tend to live shorter lives, the authors write.
However, the reason and direction of those associations are not clear, and most previous studies did not categorize sleep at a detailed level.
To solve this problem, researchers used data from the Human Connectome Project, which maps nerve fiber-level connections throughout the human brain, to gain a more detailed picture of sleep quality and its relationship to well-being and well-being.
The dataset includes brain imaging data and extensive self-reported details about each person’s lifestyle, mental and physical health, as well as personality and sleep characteristics, such as typical sleep duration, difficulty staying asleep, and use of sleep aids.
People diagnosed with clinical depression were excluded from the study, but people in the dataset were included if they had subclinical symptoms of anxiety or depression that did not interfere with their daily lives. The researchers focused on data from 770 people between the ages of 22 and 36, whose sleep appears to be unaffected by the aging process, Perrault said.
Using unsupervised machine learning, which leverages artificial intelligence to analyze data without predefined categories, researchers found statistical associations between certain lifestyle characteristics, brain imaging, and sleep characteristics.
Participants were asked to rate their sleep over the past month using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. A score of 5 or less is considered a good night’s sleep, and the average score of the people in the study was 5.14 on a scale of 0 to 19, the paper notes.
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Although some people slept well, the researchers focused on those who scored above 5. This created five sleep profiles. For example, a “poor sleeper” refers to someone who has trouble sleeping and experiences mental health symptoms such as anxiety, and a “disordered sleeper” refers to someone whose sleep is disturbed to the extent that it affects their health or cognitive function.
Each profile is also linked to “neurosignatures,” or brain responses that contain information about what the person might be experiencing at the time, such as body temperature, nightmares, or hormonal fluctuations.
This suggests that sleep profiles are related to both brain wiring and markers of health and well-being, Perrault said.
Dr. Henry Yagi, professor of internal medicine and director of the Yale Center for Sleep Medicine, praised the study’s methodology. “This is a much more comprehensive assessment of sleep than I think we’ve done in the past,” said Yagi, who was not involved in the study. “This is not one-size-fits-all,” he told Live Science. “There is a profile of the relationship between sleep and mental health.”
Perrault believes the five sleep profiles could be used as biomarkers, or measurable warning signs of possible future conditions. Because these profiles were defined in healthy young people, further research is needed to see if they could serve as biomarkers, perhaps for detecting the onset of anxiety or depression, Yagi said.
Perrault and Yaggi told Live Science that they believe the five sleep profiles could be used to guide clinical interventions. For example, certain treatments aimed at improving sleep, such as talk therapy, sleep apps, and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices, may be more useful for “short sleepers” than for “sleep aid users.” Broadly speaking, this line of research could also shed light on why about 40% of patients do not respond to cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), a type of conversation and behavior therapy, Perrault added.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice.
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