menu
FR | EN
Medical assistance
Certified Medical Tourism ProfessionalBest Medical Travel Agency 2015Best use of technology in Medical Travel 2017

Just a few nights of bad sleep can impact your mental health

02/11/2017

Just a few nights of bad sleep can impact your mental health

The benefits of a full night’s sleep are well known. Insomniacs across the world will tell you what sleep deprivation can do to your mind and body. But now it seems that just a few nights of bad sleep could impact your mental health too.


A team of scientists from the University of Oxford in the UK ran a small experiment using four volunteers who normally sleep just fine.


The volunteers were fitted with monitors to track their sleep. For the first three nights of the study, they were allowed to sleep normally. For the next three nights, their sleep was restricted to just four hours per night.


Each day of the study, the volunteers filled out questionnaires about how they were feeling and kept video diaries.


Three out of the four volunteers said the experience was unpleasant, while one said he was largely unaffected. However, tests showed that his mood was significantly impacted, with positive emotions falling and negative emotions rising.


Doctoral student Sarah Reeve, one of the scientists who ran the experiment, was surprised by how quickly the volunteers’ moods changed.


"There were increases in anxiety, depression and stress, also increases in paranoia and feelings of mistrust about other people", she said.


"Given that this happened after only three nights of sleep deprivation, that is pretty impressive."

expand_less