Showing posts with label Psychology Health. Show all posts
Thursday, 19 June 2014
Depression
Clinical depression goes by many names -- depression, "the blues," biological depression, major depression. But it all refers to the same thing: feeling sad and depressed for weeks or months on end (not just a passing blue mood). This feeling is most often accompanied by feelings of hopelessness, a lack of energy (or feeling "weighed down"), and taking little or no pleasure in things that gave you joy in the past. A person who's depressed just "can't get moving" and feels completely unmotivated to do just about anything. Even simple things -- like getting dressed in the morning or eating -- become large obstacles in daily life.
We've compiled a library of depression resources for you to explore. We encourage you to take your time with these resources, print out things you'd like to read more carefully, and bring anything you have additional questions about to your family doctor or a mental health professional.
Depression is readily treated nowadays with modern antidepressant medications and short-term, goal-oriented psychotherapy. Don't be put off by the number of things written about depression -- because it's so common, a lot has been written about it! Read what you need, and leave the rest for another day. Continue reading this introduction to depression...
A Guide to Sleeping Better
It’s a horrible feeling to be captain of the ship when the ship goes down. That’s how Antonina Radzikowski, 55, says she felt after falling asleep while driving down a Maryland highway one afternoon in 1994.
Radzikowski and her husband, Phillip, were heading home after dropping their teen-age son off at a gifted and talented summer program. Roughly 60 miles away from home on I-70 near Hagerstown, Md., the car Radzikowski was driving smashed into the guardrail, flew over it, and fell 30 feet before landing on railroad tracks on the opposite side of the highway. Radzikowski’s husband died and she was left with severe brain injuries that shortened her attention span and led to her retirement from teaching.
“I sometimes felt drowsy before, but I never knew why until after the accident,” Radzikowski says. A sleep study revealed that she suffers from obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which her breathing stops for about 10 seconds to as long as a minute while she’s sleeping. Her effort to breathe wakes her up, and this stop-and-start cycle of waking to breathe can repeat hundreds of times a night. A person with sleep apnea isn’t aware of the frequent awakenings, but is likely to feel overwhelming sleepiness during the day.
There are many reasons for sleep deprivation. Each year, there are about 40 million people in the United States who suffer from sleeping disorders. An additional 20 million have occasional sleeping problems, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
People who work nights, for example, probably never completely adapt because our bodies want to be awake during the day and asleep at night. We are governed by the circadian rhythm, an internal clock that regulates sleep and wake cycles. Sleep deprivation can also result when people choose to skimp on sleep in favor of work, parties or late-night television.
Whatever the reason for sleep loss, research has shown that it takes a toll on us both mentally and physically. While we sleep, our bodies secrete hormones that affect our mood, energy, memory, and concentration. Testing has shown that with a driving simulator or a hand-eye coordination task, sleep-deprived people may perform just as badly as intoxicated people.
Sleep deprivation and fatigue have long been issues for professions that have traditionally held long work hours. Pilots have federal regulations that limit their work hours to eight hours of flying time within a 24-hour period. Truck drivers can’t drive more than 10 hours without a mandatory eight-hour break. Physician advocacy groups are pushing for the passage of the Patient and Physician Safety Protection Act, currently under consideration in Congress, that would set limits nationwide on the number of hours worked by medical residents.
Ethnic Response to Sleep Disturbances
Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 16, 2010
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 16, 2010
New research suggests sleep disturbancessleep disturbance are associated with clinically
meaningful reductions in health-related quality of life.
The research is found in theJournal
of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
Results indicate that physical health-related quality of life in
African-Americans who snored frequently, had insomnia symptoms or reported
excessive daytime sleepiness was significantly worse than in Caucasians.
African-Americans with insomnia also had significantly more
physical limitations than Hispanics.
However, when mental health-related quality of life was
evaluated, it was Hispanics with frequent snoring, insomnia symptoms or excessive
daytime sleepiness who had significantly greater mental distress than
Caucasians.
African-Americans with insomnia also had significantly worse mental
health than Caucasians.
“The study highlights the increased disparities among African-
and Latino-Americans compared with Caucasians even in the sleep and
health-related quality of life domain,” said lead author Carol M. Baldwin, PhD,
RN, FAAN.
The study involved a secondary analysis of data from the Sleep
Heart Health Study, a multi-center study that recruited participants from seven
regions of the U.S. Eighty-six percent of the 5,237 people in the current study
were Caucasian, nine percent were African-American and five percent were
Hispanic.
The Hispanic participants were predominantly of Mexican heritage
residing in Arizona, with a smaller number of Puerto-Rican participants from
the New York cohort. All participants were 40 years of age or older, and their
mean age was 63.5 years.
The presence of obstructive sleep apnea was detected by overnight, in-home
polysomnography. Snoring and insomnia – defined as trouble falling asleep,
staying asleep or waking too early – were assessed using the Sleep Habits
Questionnaire. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale was used to evaluate daytime
sleepiness.
Health-related quality of life was assessed with the physical
and mental composite scales of the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item short form
survey.
According to the authors, low scores on the physical scale
suggest limitations in self-care and physical activities, severe bodily pain
and frequent tiredness. A low score on the mental scale indicates frequent
psychological distress, as well as social and role disability due to emotional
problems.
The study found that sleep disturbances were common, with 46
percent of people having at least mild sleep apnea, 34 percent reporting
frequent snoring, 30 percent having insomnia symptoms and 25 percent reporting
excessive daytime sleepiness.
Frequent snoring was significantly more common among Hispanics
(41 percent), and excessive daytime sleepiness was significantly more common
among African-Americans (32 percent). There were no statistically significant
differences in the distribution of obstructive sleep apnea or insomnia symptoms
by race.
According to Baldwin, the study could help reduce health
disparities and improve outcomes by advancing “tailored care” in sleep
medicine.
“These findings support the need for sleep clinicians to use
culturally-responsive sleep education, assessment and intervention approaches,
as well as depression, anxiety and
other relevant mood and socioeconomic-status measures,” she said.
The authors cautioned that the correlational nature of the study
did not allow for an analysis of causality. Baldwin added that the causes of
differences in health-related quality of life can be complex and may include
such factors as lifestyle and activity patterns, diet, sleep architecture and
access to health care.
However, the study suggests that the impact of sleep disorders
on daily living and general well-being may be similar to that of other chronic
conditions. The mean score profiles for health-related quality of life in
people with sleep apnea and other sleep symptoms were similar to those that
have been previously reported for patients with hypertension and type 2
diabetes.
Tips for Getting to Sleep — and Staying Asleep
By DONNA M. WHITE, LMHC, CACP
Scenario 1: You’re
nice and relaxed. You’ve gotten into your comfortable pajamas, and you’ve
gotten in just the right spot. You’re warm, comfortable, and in no time you are
fast asleep. You wake up feeling somewhat rested and look at your alarm clock
and it’s 2:53 am. Now you can’t go back to sleep.
Scenario 2: You’ve
tried everything you can think of. You’re lying in the bed and
you think you’re relaxed. You’ve tried meditating, counting sheep, watching TV,
turning the TV off — even pretending to be asleep hoping that sleep will come.
You just can’t get to sleep.
Scenario 3: You
got comfortable, you fell asleep, you stayed asleep — mission accomplished.
Your morning alarm goes off and now you just don’t feel rested. You’ve slept
all night, but you’re still sleepy.
The above scenarios are common. But how well
we sleep at night determines how well we feel and function the following day.
It is vital not only to get a healthy amount of sleep, but to sleep well. With
good sleep habits, we may be able to prevent some mental fogginess or the need
for that morning pick-me-up, as well as avoid the mid-afternoon crash.
The first key to getting good sleep is finding
out what works for you. This may require some experimenting on your part.
There is no cure-all. We are all designed differently; therefore we all require
different things.
It is equally important to find out
how much sleep your body requires. Most research shows that the average
adult needs 8 hours of sleep, but you may be able to function well with only
six, while others may require 10.
Personally, even with some medically-based
reasons for poor sleep, I have been able to improve matters by using some of
the following tips and techniques:
- Eating a healthy
diet.
Some of you may be
wondering what eating well has to do with sleeping well. Well, as the saying
goes, “you are what you eat.” Remember too that “what you eat may affect your
sleep.” Avoid eating foods that may upset your stomach. No one likes stumbling
to the bathroom in the dark; surely no one enjoys trying to sprint in the
middle of the night, either. Avoid foods that may cause acid reflux or
heartburn. Cut back on your liquids before bedtime to avoid these bathroom
sprints as well.
While you may enjoy a
nice glass of wine with dinner, you may want to make that your last glass for
the night. Alcohol may make you fall asleep quickly, but it also causes sleep disturbance and
may have you looking at the clock in frustration mid-morning. If you’re hungry
or must have a bedtime snack, choose something high in protein and low in
sugar. Resist the urge for the midnight chocolate cake and go for a healthier
choice such as peanut butter, a protein bar, or a glass of milk.
- Creating a
relaxing environment.
Remember, this is
specific to you and may take some experimenting. I have learned that creating a
relaxing environment starts long before I get into bed. It is important to wind
down before making your way to the bedroom.
Find something
stress-free and relaxing to do and try to make it your nightly routine. Your
brain will soon pick up on this habit and start telling your body it’s time to
go to bed.Next, find your comfort noise level. Some
people enjoy background noise, while others prefer quiet. Then, find a
comfortable temperature. There is nothing worse than waking up because you are
too hot or too cold. Lastly, get comfortable.
- Leaving your
stress, worries, and wonderings at the door.
If you’re like me, you
may suffer from the “I can’t seem to turn my brain off” syndrome. I lay down
and think I’m going to relax and find myself thinking of things I didn’t get
done, making a to-do list for the next day, or wondering why certain colors don’t
seem to match, or how animals got their names.
I have found that this is
where guided meditation and relaxation works for me. I have been fortunate
enough to download a few on my phone and they seem to work. If you can’t
download apps to your phone or another device, look for meditation CD’s. I have
found some pretty good ones at the local library and those are always free.
Even on the nights where I can’t quite meditate I may start to wonder “why does
this guy’s voice sound so strange” and it still takes my mind off other things.
Soon, I’m asleep.
If you wake up, don’t think about going back
to sleep. I’m sure it sounds weird, but it works. I went through a period where
I woke up every morning at 2:33 a.m. I would wake up and not even have to look
at the clock because I already knew the time. This was later determined to be
due to some hormonal issues, but it was frustrating nonetheless. I found myself
looking at the clock and thinking “I have to go back to sleep.” I didn’t
realize I was actually creating moreanxiety for myself and making it more
difficult to go back to sleep.
I’ve learned to go back to my guided
meditations or to just lay and be aware of how my body is feeling. If I find
that I absolutely cannot go back to sleep after 10-15 minutes I get up. Avoid
stimulating activities or bright lights if possible. On nights like this I try
to enjoy some warm tea, a light snack, then get back and bed and try to relax
again.
Sleep disturbances can be caused by a variety
of issues. If you try various techniques and still have frequent or persistent
problems falling asleep or staying asleep you should seek medical attention.
Sleep disturbances can be a symptom of an underlying medical condition.
Interruptions in sleep caused by loud snoring
or pauses in breathing can be symptoms of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a
treatable condition, but can be fatal. Falling asleep at inappropriate times
could be a sign of narcolepsy or other disorder. You may also wish to contact
your physician if you continue to wake up and do not feel rested, have strange
body sensations or movements while lying down, experience sleep paralysis,
frequent vivid dreams or sleep walking.
Again, there are no quick fixes for sleep
issues. It takes some time and work to figure out what works best for you, but
once you find a routine that works, stick with it. If you find that after some
time it no longer works, change it up. Our bodies and their needs change, so we
have to be ready to adapt. Here’s to happy sleeping!
Tips for a Satisfying Sleep
It’s especially important to get enough sleep during stressful times. You may feel pulled in many directions by relationships, errands and work to be done. However, if you sacrifice sleep when you’re stressed, you’ll create a vicious cycle where you’re tired all the time — and you may end up getting sick as a result.
1. Work Out
Exercise relaxes muscles and relieves tension. Just make sure you don’t exercise too late in the day: Since working out is an adrenaline-booster, you may find yourself too wired to sleep. A good rule to follow: Don’t exercise for at least two hours before you go to bed.
Exercise relaxes muscles and relieves tension. Just make sure you don’t exercise too late in the day: Since working out is an adrenaline-booster, you may find yourself too wired to sleep. A good rule to follow: Don’t exercise for at least two hours before you go to bed.
2. Relax and Unwind
Relaxation techniques calm you and let you forget your stresses for awhile. Yoga or meditation often does the trick, as does massage or even a nice, warm bubble bath. Aaaah. Lovemaking is also a natural relaxant that can be quite effective before bedtime!
Relaxation techniques calm you and let you forget your stresses for awhile. Yoga or meditation often does the trick, as does massage or even a nice, warm bubble bath. Aaaah. Lovemaking is also a natural relaxant that can be quite effective before bedtime!
3. Set Your Internal Clock
It’s important to establish a consistent time for going to bed and waking up. Your body becomes used to hitting the sack at a regular time, and this helps you fall asleep more easily.
It’s important to establish a consistent time for going to bed and waking up. Your body becomes used to hitting the sack at a regular time, and this helps you fall asleep more easily.
4. Divert Yourself
Once you get into bed, if you toss and turn and can’t sleep a wink, go into another room and pick up a book for a while, or listen to some music. When you start feeling drowsy, head back to bed.
Once you get into bed, if you toss and turn and can’t sleep a wink, go into another room and pick up a book for a while, or listen to some music. When you start feeling drowsy, head back to bed.
5. Factor Food In
While you don’t want to go to bed hungry, be careful of what you eat close to bedtime. Spicy, greasy, or heavy foods may not digest well, and can cause you to wake up during the night with an unhappy stomach. Also avoid caffeine within six hours of hitting the sack. Better choices for before-bed snacks include foods high in carbohydrates, such as bagels or crackers, which digest more easily. And don’t forget the old standby, a glass of warm milk — it really may help soothe you to sleep.
While you don’t want to go to bed hungry, be careful of what you eat close to bedtime. Spicy, greasy, or heavy foods may not digest well, and can cause you to wake up during the night with an unhappy stomach. Also avoid caffeine within six hours of hitting the sack. Better choices for before-bed snacks include foods high in carbohydrates, such as bagels or crackers, which digest more easily. And don’t forget the old standby, a glass of warm milk — it really may help soothe you to sleep.
If you focus on something as simple as your own breath, you can help eliminate the tossing and turning that often precedes a restless night’s sleep. Deep breathing helps your body unwind, relax and prepare for rest.
The following two techniques — breathing and relaxing yourself to sleep — are modified from traditional yoga postures. Besides being a great form of physical exercise, yoga can also be a holistic sleeping aid. The controlled breathing that you’ll learn in these two exercises promotes deep relaxation, and can ease the mental strains that often block sound sleep.
Tips for A Good Night's Sleep
Getting a good night's sleep can be easier than you think, if you just keep in mind some of these helpful tips. Remember, sleep is supposed to be relaxing and helps to renew your body every night. Do not make sleep a competition or skimp for too long (longer than a few days) on getting a good night's sleep of at least 8 hours per day. Everybody has trouble sleeping from time to time, so don't worry if you're having a stretch of having trouble sleeping. Try these tips to help return to a restful, natural sleep.
Sources: American Academy of Sleep Medicine; James Walsh, Ph.D., National Sleep Foundation
- Set a schedule and keep a regular sleep schedule
Go to bed at a set time each night and get up at the same time each morning. Disrupting this schedule may lead to insomnia. "Sleeping in" on weekends also makes it harder to wake up early on Monday morning because it re-sets your sleep cycles for a later awakening. Do not nap within 8 hours of bedtime.- Exercise
Try to exercise 20 to 30 minutes a day. Daily exercise often helps people sleep, although a workout soon before bedtime may interfere with sleep. For maximum benefit, try to get your exercise about 5 to 6 hours before going to bed. Do not exercise within two hours of bedtime.- Avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol
Avoid drinks that contain caffeine, which acts as a stimulant and keeps people awake. Sources of caffeine include coffee, chocolate, soft drinks, non-herbal teas, diet drugs, and some pain relievers. Smokers tend to sleep very lightly and often wake up in the early morning due to nicotine withdrawal. Alcohol robs people of deep sleep and REM sleep and keeps them in the lighter stages of sleep. Avoid all of these things at least 6 to 8 hours before sleeping if you want a good night's sleep. Also, try to avoid eating any kind of large meal within two hours of bedtime.- Have a relaxing bedtime ritual
A warm bath, reading, or another relaxing routine can make it easier to fall sleep. You can train yourself to associate certain restful activities with sleep and make them part of your bedtime ritual.- Sleep until sunlight
If possible, wake up with the sun, or use very bright lights in the morning. Sunlight helps the body's internal biological clock reset itself each day. Sleep experts recommend exposure to an hour of morning sunlight for people having problems falling asleep.- Don't lie in bed awake
If you can't get to sleep, don't just lie in bed. Do something else, like reading, watching television, or listening to music, until you feel tired. The anxiety of being unable to fall asleep can actually contribute to insomnia. Return to bed when you begin feeling sleepy, and try to avoid sleeping in locations other than your bed.- Control your room environment and temperature
Maintain a comfortable temperature in the bedroom. Extreme temperatures may disrupt sleep or prevent you from falling asleep. Ensure a dark, quiet environment whenever possible. Try to avoid going to sleep with the television or radio on, because it can be a bad habit that leads to the need to have the TV or radio on every time you try and sleep.- See a doctor if your sleeping problem continues
If you have trouble falling asleep night after night, or if you always feel tired the next day, then you may have a sleep disorder and should see a physician. Your primary care physician may be able to help you; if not, you can probably find a sleep specialist at a major hospital near you. Most sleep disorders can be treated effectively, so you can finally get that good night's sleep you need.
Table of Contents
- An Introduction to Sleep Disorders
- How Much Sleep Do We Need?
- Insomnia
- Sleep Apnea
- Restless Legs Syndrome
- Narcolepsy
- Tips for a Good Night's Sleep
- Learn more about Circadian Rhythms
- Learn more about Dreaming and REM Sleep
» Next in Series: Circadian Rhythms and Sleep
Symptoms of Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder
Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder is characterized by
repeatedly waking up after REM sleep, which may include vocalizations or
complex motor behaviors. The “complex motor behaviors” are in reaction to
events occurring in one’s dream state, and are often called “dream enacting
behaviors.” For instance, a person might move one’s arms in a fighting manner,
because of fighting that is occurring within one’s dream. Other behaviors might
include running, punching, thrusting, hitting, kicking, or falling out of bed
due to physical movements.
This is a rare disorder and occurs in less than 0.5 percent of
the population.
Specific Symptoms of Rapid Eye
Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder
1. Repeated episodes of arousal during sleep, associated with
vocalization and/or complex motor behaviors.
2. These behaviors arise during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
and therefore usually occur more than 90 minutes after sleep onset. They are
more frequent during the later portions of the sleep period. While they may
occur during daytime naps, it is uncommon.
3. Upon awakening from these episodes, the individual is
completely awake, alert and not confused or disoriented.
4. Either of the following:
- REM sleep
without atonia on polysomnographic recording.
- A history
suggestive of REM sleep behavior disorder and an established
synucleinopathy diagnosis (e.g., Parkinson’s disease, multiple system
atrophy).
5. The behaviors cause clinically significant distress or
impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning
(which may include injury to self or the bed partner).
6. The disturbance is not attributable to the physiological
effects of a substance or another medical condition.
7. Co-existing mental and medical disorders do not explain the
episodes.
Sleep-Deprived Nation
By MARIE HARTWELL-WALKER, ED.D.
The student who asked to see me looks
exhausted. I’m used to sleepy students. It’s an occupational hazard of teaching
the 8:30 a.m. class. But I’ve been worried about this young man for several
weeks. He seems to be fighting especially hard to keep his head from hitting
the desk during every class. Ironically, we’ve been covering sleepdisorders in our psychology seminar and
he sent me an urgent request for an appointment.
Now at my office in the late afternoon, he
doesn’t look much better. “Were you serious that people sometimes feel so
paralyzed when they wake up that they can’t move?” he asks. “Is it really true
that people can hear voices just because they are sleep-deprived? How about seeing
ghosts and spirits?”
“Yes. Yes. And yes,” I tell him. “Those are
all symptoms of sleep disorders.” He lets out a big sigh. He seems very, very
relieved. “I thought maybe I was going insane.”
My student’s sanity is not in question, at
least not yet. However, his chronic insomnia is causing him more and more
trouble. What he had thought were paranormal experiences or symptoms of mental
illness are most likely a consequence of inadequate and frequently interrupted
sleep. Untreated, his health, his ability to think clearly, and his capacity to
make good judgments are likely to deteriorate.
He’s certainly not alone in his inability to
get sufficient sleep. A recent study released by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention found that 41 percent of Americans report that they have
not had sufficient sleep for nearly 2 weeks of the past month. Only one third
of adults report they get enough sleep every night. This doesn’t surprise me.
My clients and my friends regularly report lack of sufficient sleep; sometimes
with near-disastrous consequences. Stress, financial pressures, overuse of
technology, (did I mention stress?) and the conventional wisdom that people
don’t really need as much sleep as once was believed are all conspiring to
increase our expectations for productivity and decrease our time relaxing,
recovering, and sleeping.
One man I know–let’s call him Ted–awoke in his
car as he was being shaken by a local police officer. He’d pulled into a
driveway, thinking it was his own, and promptly fallen asleep. Alarmed by the
presence of a strange car idling in their yard at 3 a.m., the homeowners had
called the police. My friend had driven 100 miles to get home after a long day
of meetings to avoid having to pay for a hotel room. He could have paid with
his life – and the lives of others.
Trying to meet the demands of work and responsibilities
to family sometimes makes people take chances. Alex drove 15 hours straight
rather than stop for rest, pushing to get home in time for his daughter’s
birthday. During the last hour, he kept seeing phantom vehicles bearing down on
him, only to evaporate like mist. Freaked by the hallucinations and obsessed
with getting home, he pushed on. Fortunately, he was traveling in the wee hours
of the morning when few others were on the road. In a somber moment, he
acknowledges that wrapping himself around a tree would not have been a
wonderful birthday surprise for his daughter. But at the time, he’d been just
stressing about getting home. He made it but, like Ted, it was more a matter of
luck than skill that got him there.
Financial pressures sometimes make people give
up on sleep. Ciel is a hardworking single mom who is doing her best both to
support her kids and increase her prospects for a better job by going to
school. She works third shift as an awake overnight staff member at a
residential school for troubled teens. The overnighter pays better than day
work and she can study when the residents are asleep. She gets off at 7:00
a.m., takes an 8:00 and a 9:30 college class and gets home at about 11:30. She
sleeps until 3:30 when the kids come home. The hours from 3:30 to 7:30 are
dedicated to doing household chores,
having dinner with her children, and getting them started on homework. If she’s
lucky, she fits in another nap from 8:00 – 10:00. She is getting only about 6
hours in a 24-hour period and that 6 hours is neither continuous nor
predictable. If a child is home sick, if a school project requires more
mom-time to get done, if she’s behind on laundry, she often sacrifices even
more hours of sleep. Her persistence in both meeting her goals and being there
for her kids is admirable. But the quality of her work, her parenting, and her life in general suffers.
Not too surprisingly, she collapsed during the holidays and ended up in a
hospital for acute exhaustion. She slept for the first 26 hours of her hospital
stay!
Technology can also be blamed for disrupting
our sleep. The constant input of emails, texts, and social networking, video
and online games, and TV on demand, all the time, puts the brain into a
constant active state. A brain that’s wired up has difficulty settling down
when it’s time to sleep. Often enough, a person who tosses and turns trying to
get to sleep gives up – and goes back to the computer! So much for quieting the
unquiet mind!
For these many reasons, the average American
is getting slightly more than six and a half hours of sleep a night. That’s a
drop from an average of eight hours a night 50 – 100 years ago. Although it is
true that not everyone needs the same amount of sleep, most of us do need 8 – 9
hours of rest. The reduction of over an hour on average means that many people are
losing almost a complete cycle of restorative sleep.
The result is the increase of sleep disorders
and related illness. More and more people are showing up in clinical offices
with symptoms of narcolepsy, sleep paralysis, night terrors, sleep phase disorders,
or chronic insomnia. Often psychiatric disorders like depression andanxiety are secondary to insufficient
sleep, as are medical diseases like hypertension, high cholesterol, and
diabetes.
Like my student, many people are in denial
about the impact of their sleep habits on their general health and wellbeing or
have resigned themselves to a pattern of inadequate sleep. Others have
convinced themselves that they really don’t need more than 5 or 6 hours of
sleep to be at their best and scold themselves for being tired. Still others
have developed dependence on over-the-counter sleep aids or think that getting
extra sleep on the weekends compensates for inadequate sleep during the week.
Nightly restorative sleep is essential to
wellbeing, productivity, and creativity. If you are among the millions of
people who are simply depriving themselves of rest, give yourself the gift of a
good night’s sleep. If you’ve developed a sleep disorder, a visit to a sleep
clinic or to a clinician trained in treating sleep disorders can result in a
plan for re-establishing healthful and restorative sleep. Ah – to sleep. More
important: To sleep enough. It’s what the body and mind really needs.
Can fMRI Tell If You’re Lying?
The
simple answer is, no. You can now go back to work, content in that little
tidbit of brain knowledge.
So
you can imagine the challenges that might be faced when you connect this kind
of brain measurement to a legal proceeding. Areview article on
the use of fMRI for lie detection basically found that the science isn’t there.
Researchers
cannot even reproduce their own findings when it comes to fMRI, which is the
core and basic tenet of research. If results are not reliably and consistently
reproduceable, what you have discovered is a random effect, not a
reliable scientific finding.
Vaughan
over at Mind Hacks has the full story and a lot more commentary about recent
court cases that Wired has covered about defendants now trying to get fMRI
scans admitted into evidence as a lie detection evidence. Vaughan is far more
optimistic about the fMRI lie detection data than I am — I believe the core
scientific foundation doesn’t even exist for this technique. He believes there
may be enough data to piece together using an fMRI as one possible datapoint of
evidence in a court case:
Most
of the arguments from neuroscientists focus on the scenario where someone
‘might be sent to prison’ on the basis of fMRI evidence, but Schauer notes that
this is only a tiny proportion of court cases and that evidence should be
evaluated depending on the context.
This,
Schauer says, could be where technology like fMRI lie detection could play a
part. If it is 60% reliable and is simply a small part of a larger picture it
seems daft to not allow it when similarly ‘unreliable’ evidence is admitted all
the time. As he notes “Although slight evidence ought not to be good enough for
scientists, it is a large part of the law.”
I
don’t know. If I have a technique that is basically little better than chance
to determine if you’re lying, that hardly seems very scientific. Or useful.
Might as well roll some dice or flip a coin to determine if a person is lying.
Worse, if you can’t reproduce that result reliably, then it really is no better
than flipping a coin.
People
have the mistaken belief that lie detection is widely accepted, reliably
administered, and easily interpreted, but nothing could be further from the
truth. Lie detection instruments as they exist today vary in their reliability
and evidence from lie detection interviews is rarely admitted into court.
Despite lie detection’s problems, it is still used regularly in job screening
and sensitive positions, like the FBI. fMRI is an attempt to improve the
science behind lie detection, but it’s still at its earliest stages and has a
long way to go before it becomes reliable.
Read
the full article: fMRI lie detection and the Wonder
Woman problem
Medication Library
Knowledge galaxy Staff
Welcome to our medication library. Within this
section, you will find general information about some of the most
commonly-prescribed medications for mental disorders. This information includes
proper use of the medication, common side-effects, and the interactions the
medication may have with other medications or over-the-counter drugs.
Stress Triggers Depression in Women, Alcohol Craving in Men
By RICK NAUERT PHD Senior News Editor
An
interesting new study finds that women and men tend to have different types of
stress-related psychological disorders.
Women have greater rates of depressionand some types of anxiety disorders than men, while men
have greater rates of alcohol-use disorders than women.
In the study of emotional and alcohol-craving
responses to stress, scientists discovered that when men become upset, they are
more likely than women to want alcohol.
Results will be published in the July issue of Alcoholism:
Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at
OnlineEarly.
“We know that women and men respond to stress
differently,” said Tara M. Chaplin, associate research scientist at Yale
University School of Medicine and first author of the study.
“For example, following a stressful
experience, women are more likely than men to say that they feel sad or
anxious, which may lead to risk for depression and anxiety disorders. Some
studies have found that men are more likely to drink alcohol following stress
than women. If this becomes a pattern, it could lead to alcohol-use disorders.”
As part of a larger study, the researchers
exposed 54 healthy adult social drinkers (27 women, 27 men) to three types of
imagery scripts – stressful, alcohol-related, and neutral/relaxing – in
separate sessions, on separate days and in random order. Chaplin and her
colleagues then assessed participants’ subjective emotions, behavioral/bodily
responses, cardiovascular arousal as indicated by heart rate and blood
pressure, and self-reported alcohol craving.
“After listening to the stressful story, women
reported more sadness and anxiety than men,” said Chaplin, “as well as greater
behavioral arousal. But, for the men … emotional arousal was linked to
increases in alcohol craving. In other words, when men are upset, they are more
likely to want alcohol.”
These findings – in addition to the fact that
the men drank more than the women on average – meant that the men had more
experience with alcohol, perhaps leading them to turn to alcohol as a way of
coping with distress, added Chaplin.
“Men’s tendency to crave alcohol when upset
may be a learned behavior or may be related to known gender differences in
reward pathways in the brain,” she said. “And this tendency may contribute to
risk for alcohol-use disorders.”
There is a greater societal acceptance of
“emotionality,” particularly sadness and anxiety, in women than in men, noted
Chaplin.
“Women are more likely than men to focus on
negative emotional aspects of stressful circumstances, for example, they tend
to ‘ruminate’ or think over and over again about their negative emotional
state,” she said.
“Men, in contrast, are more likely to distract
themselves from negative emotions, to try not to think about these emotions.
Our finding that men had greater blood pressure response to stress, but did not
report greater sadness and anxiety, may reflect that they are more likely to
try to distract themselves from their physiological arousal, possibly through
the use of alcohol.”
Source: Yale University
Circadian Rhythm Sleep-Wake Disorder Symptoms
A persistent or recurrent pattern of sleep
disruption leading to excessive sleepiness or insomnia that is due to a
mismatch between the sleep-wake schedule required by a person’s environment and
his or her circadian sleep-wake pattern. In other words, a person’s natural
biological clock for sleep is at odds with times required for them to go to
sleep and wake up. For example, an individual may have trouble falling asleep
early enough to feel rested for their job the next day, ultimately leading to
difficulty following their required schedule. Others may exhibit a variable
sleep pattern (e.g., take multiple naps instead of sleeping an extended block
of time) throughout the regular 24 hr period leading to similar sleepiness or
trouble concentrating during the socially conventional awake period. Insomnia
and excessive sleepiness during work hours can also be induced in shift workers
due to their unconventional schedule.
The sleep disturbance causes clinically
significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas
of functioning.
The disturbance does not occur exclusively
during the course of another Sleep Disorder or other mental disorder.
The disturbance is not due to the direct
physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a
general medical condition.
Hypersomnolence (hypersomnia) Symptoms
Hypersomnia
(termed hypersomnolence in DSM-5) is characterized by recurrent
episodes of excessive daytime sleepiness or prolonged nighttime sleep.
Different from feeling tired due to lack of or interrupted sleep at night, persons
with hypersomnolence are compelled to nap repeatedly during the day, often at
inappropriate times such as at work, during a meal, or in conversation. These
daytime naps usually provide no relief from symptoms. Patients often have
difficulty waking from a long sleep, and may feel disoriented. Other symptoms
may include anxiety, increased irritation, decreased energy, restlessness, slow
thinking, slow speech, loss of appetite, hallucinations, and memory difficulty.
Some patients lose the ability to function in family, social, occupational, or
other settings. Some people appear to have a genetic predisposition to
hypersomnolence; in others, there is no known cause.
Hypersomnolence typically affects adolescents and young adults.
Specific Diagnostic Criteria
for Hypersomnolence
The predominant complaint is excessive sleepiness for at least 1
month (in acute conditions) or at least 3 months (in persistent conditions) as
evidenced by either prolonged sleep episodes or daytime sleep episodes that
occur at least 3x per week.
The excessive sleepiness causes clinically significant distress
or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
The excessive sleepiness is not better accounted for by insomnia
and does not occur exclusively during the course of another Sleep Disorder
(e.g., Narcolepsy, Breathing-Related Sleep Disorder, Circadian Rhythm Sleep
Disorder, or a Parasomnia) and cannot be accounted for by an inadequate amount
of sleep.
The disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects
of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical
condition.
Hypersomnolence can co-occur with another mental or medical
disorders, though this condition cannot adequately explain the predominant
complaint of hypersomnolence; in other words, the hypersomnolence is
significant enough to warrant its own clinical attention and treatment. In
some cases it results from a physical problem, such as a tumor, head trauma, or
injury to the central nervous system. Medical conditions including multiple
sclerosis, depression, encephalitis, epilepsy, or obesity may also contribute
to the disorder.
Treatments for
Hypersomnolence
Treatment for hypersomnolence is based upon the symptoms a
person has. Stimulants, such as amphetamine, methylphenidate, and modafinil,
may be prescribed. Other drugs used to treat hypersomnia include clonidine,
levodopa, bromocriptine, antidepressants, and monoamine oxidase inhibitors.
Changes in behavior (for example avoiding night work and social activities that
delay bed time) and diet may offer some relief. Patients should avoid alcohol
and caffeine.
Narcolepsy Symptoms
By Knowledge Galaxy Staf
Irresistible attacks of refreshing sleep that occur almost daily
(at least 3x per week) over at least 3 months.
The presence of one or both of the following:
- cataplexy (i.e., brief episodes
of sudden bilateral loss of muscle tone, most often in association with
intense emotion)
- recurrent intrusions of
elements of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep into the transition between
sleep and wakefulness, as manifested by either hypnopompic or hypnagogic
hallucinations or sleep paralysis at the beginning or end of sleep
episodes
The disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects
of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or another general medical
condition.
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