Your ‘sleep profile’ sheds light on health, lifestyle and cognition, new study shows
Just as a single night of sleeplessness can leave you groggy and cranky, getting restful sleep can help you feel rested and ready to take on the day. However, the quality of your sleep over time may influence deeper aspects of your health and well-being, new research suggests.
Five distinct sleep habits are linked to your health, lifestyle and cognitive function, as well as how different regions of your brain connect to each other, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Biology.
Specifically, these “biopsychosocial sleep profiles” encompass biological, psychological, and socio-environmental factors – such as having a safe and comfortable place to sleep – that contribute to your sleep hygiene.
Much of the research in sleep medicine focuses on specific issues, such as the link between sleep apnea and cognitive decline, how insomnia affects the heart, or whether a person is a night owl or an early riser. The new study, led by researchers at Concordia University in Montreal, looked at the bigger picture.
“People should take their sleep seriously,” said Valeria Kebets, study co-author and manager of machine learning projects at Concordia’s Applied AI Institute. “It affects everything in their daily functioning.”
To define the profiles, researchers analyzed sleep data from 770 “healthy” young adults aged 22 to 36, indicating that they had not been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, such as bipolar disorder, Kebets said. The data comes from the Human Connectome Project, an existing database that studies brain connectivity.
Using a questionnaire called the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, participants self-reported their sleep characteristics over the past month.
They also underwent a functional MRI, a type of scan that maps brain activity.
“It’s important to look at all these different aspects of sleep, all the different dimensions of sleep, because they are related to different outcomes and can also be improved by different interventions,” Kebets said.
Next, Kebets and his team analyzed 118 biopsychosocial measures, such as cognition, substance use, demographics, and personality.
A person may fall into more than one of the five categories identified by Kebets and her team, especially over time, she said.
For example, if you go through a stressful few months at work, the associated sleep disruptions may temporarily align you with a different profile.
“These are profiles that we all show to some extent,” Kebets said.
The researchers identified two general sleep profiles and three specific profiles.
#1: Poor sleep and mental health
Features include decreased sleep satisfaction, longer time to fall asleep, and greater complaints of sleep disturbances.
People with this type of poor sleep have experienced trouble sleeping during the day and negative emotions, including fear, stress, and anger. Additionally, people in this group had poorer mental health, such as depression, anxiety, and internalizing behavior.
Previous research has shown the association between sleep and mental health.
“Poor sleep breeds poor mental health,” said J. Todd Arnedt, director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program and co-director of the Sleep and Circadian Rhythm Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan Medical School, who was not involved in the study. “Poor mental health leads to poor sleep. »
No. 2: Sleep resilience and mental health
People in the second profile also reported negative emotions, including sadness, and poor mental health, including attention difficulties such as inattention and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Lack of awareness was another attribute.
The people in this group who suffered from daytime disturbances, however, did not complain of difficulty sleeping. Researchers have called this phenomenon “sleep resilience.”
It’s possible that people fitting this profile have sleep problems they weren’t aware of, Kebets said, calling it a “misperception of sleep.”
“Sometimes when you have mental health issues — symptoms of anxiety or depression, for example — you may not be sleeping as well as usual, but you don’t necessarily recognize it because you have other things on your mind,” Kebets said.
No. 3: Sleep aids and sociability
The third profile represents people who took hypnotics, or sleeping pills, to get a good night’s sleep.
People in this group reported social satisfaction, including friendship and emotional support. They also felt less rejection and fewer attention problems.
However, this profile was also characterized by poorer emotional recognition, the ability to identify the emotions of others, and visual episodic memory, the ability to vividly remember past experiences.
#4: Sleep duration and cognition
People who reported sleeping less than six to seven hours per night had less pleasant behavior and more aggressive behavior.
Additionally, people who slept little had cognitive consequences. For example, they performed tasks involving emotion processing and fluid intelligence, which is a measure of problem solving, with poorer accuracy.
No. 5: Sleep disorders, cognition and mental health
Sleep disturbances, including pain, breathing problems, frequent urination, temperature imbalance, and multiple awakenings, are indicators of the fifth profile.
People in this group suffered from substance abuse and poor mental health, such as thought problems and anxiety. They also demonstrated aggressive behavior and poorer cognitive performance, particularly in language processing.
Sleep is essential for healthy body and mind
The research had several major limitations. Participants were predominantly healthy, white, young adults who worked full-time. Additionally, the researchers noted that “a large number” of participants were siblings, even twins.
The study also analyzed people’s sleeping behavior for just one month. The five sleep profiles represent a snapshot in time, Arnedt said. “If you look at those same people a year later, they might be in completely different categories.”
He also noted that the study was retrospective, meaning it looked at how participants had slept in the past. Asking people to keep a real-time sleep diary is a preferred method for studying sleep.
However, by identifying individual sleep profiles, the findings could help sleep clinicians develop personalized treatment approaches, said Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and medical director of the Northwestern Medicine Sleep Disorders Center.
“We really need to consider multiple sleep profiles in our research and clinic – the value of a multidimensional approach to data,” Zee, who was not involved in the new research, said in an email.
Dr. Rafael Pelayo, a clinical professor in the division of sleep medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, also praised the study’s holistic approach. The five profiles, he said, could help predict who is at risk of developing sleep problems.
It’s critical that everyone, not just health care providers, understand the multidimensional nature of sleep, said Pelayo, who was not involved in the research.
“Sleep is a more complex issue than how much time you spend in bed,” he said. “If I can improve your sleep, it will have negative effects on your overall health, not just your mental health, but your physical health as well.”
This new research adds to the strong evidence that sleep is essential for brain and body health. Sleep disorders, Zee said, increase the risk of problems including mood disorders, immune problems and neurodegeneration, such as in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
Ultimately, Pelayo said, the research reinforces that people with sleep difficulties have access to hope and help: “No one should be condemned to sleeping poorly for the rest of their life. »
