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Information processing during sleep and stress‐related sleep vulnerability
Author(s) -
Lin YenHsuan,
Jen ChunHui,
Yang ChienMing
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
psychiatry and clinical neurosciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1440-1819
pISSN - 1323-1316
DOI - 10.1111/pcn.12206
Subject(s) - insomnia , sleep (system call) , audiology , slow wave sleep , primary insomnia , sleep stages , non rapid eye movement sleep , psychology , vulnerability (computing) , eye movement , sleep onset , sleep disorder , medicine , polysomnography , electroencephalography , psychiatry , neuroscience , computer security , computer science , operating system
Aims Previous studies showed enhanced attention and decreased inhibitory processes during early non‐rapid eye movement sleep in primary insomnia patients, as measured by event‐related potentials. The current study aims to examine information processing during sleep in non‐insomniac individuals with high vulnerability ( HV ) to stress‐related sleep disturbances. Methods Twenty‐seven non‐insomniac individuals were recruited, 14 with low vulnerability and 13 with HV . After passing a screening interview and polysomnographic recording, subjects came to the sleep laboratory for 2 nights (a baseline night and a stress‐inducing night) for event‐related potentials recordings. Results The HV group demonstrated shorter P 2 latency during the first 5 min of stage 2 sleep and higher P 900 amplitudes under the stress condition during slow‐wave sleep, which indicates an increased level of inhibitory processes. In addition, they had shorter N 1 latencies during slow‐wave sleep that could indicate an elevated level of attention processing during deep sleep. Conclusions Unlike patients with chronic insomnia, individuals with high sleep vulnerability to stress show a compensatory process that may prevent external stimulation from interfering with their sleep. This may be one of the factors preventing their acute sleep disturbances from becoming chronic problems.