psychology research topics on sleep

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• v.43(12); 2018 Dec

The Extraordinary Importance of Sleep

New sleep deprivation studies confirm the relationship between inadequate sleep and a wide range of disorders, such as hypertension, obesity and type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, impaired immune functioning, and more.

In the inaugural issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (2005), a feature article 1 traced early milestones in the developing field of sleep medicine, which slowly emerged from the older field of sleep research during the 1970s and 1980s. Sleep medicine, the article noted, was closely linked with and made possible by the discovery of electrical activity in the brain. The examination of electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns that occur during sleep led to the classification of stages of sleep, which in turn created an important foundation for probing human sleep, discerning abnormalities, and discovering significant relationships between sleep and health. By 2005, scientists and clinicians had not only identified and clearly defined a large number of sleep disorders but had discovered that many of them were highly prevalent.

The pace of research and discovery has only accelerated since 2005, and the number of peer-reviewed sleep journals has more than tripled. Today, researchers are more deeply probing the cellular and subcellular effects of disrupted sleep, as well as the effects of sleep deprivation on metabolism, hormone regulation, and gene expression. Newer studies are strengthening known and suspected relationships between inadequate sleep and a wide range of disorders, including hypertension, 2 obesity and type-2 diabetes, 3 impaired immune functioning, 4 cardiovascular disease and arrhythmias, 5 , 6 mood disorders, 7 neurodegeneration and dementia, 8 , 9 and even loneliness. 10

Research findings continue to underscore early concerns about public safety that were first raised when major industrial disasters such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill were linked to inadequate sleep. 11 Related research sponsored by major organizations, including the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has helped to inspire national initiatives aimed at improving public safety and health. However, despite the astounding acceleration in research during the past few decades, inadequate sleep due to sleep disorders, work schedules, and chaotic lifestyles continues to threaten both health and safety.

“Pushing against the wave of accelerated growth in the field has been a shoreline of indifference,” says David F. Dinges, PhD, Professor and Chief of the Division of Sleep and Chronobiology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. “Modern industrial pressures to use time 24 hours a day have led to shiftwork and a world in which virtually everything—law Susan L. Worley is a freelance medical writer who resides in Pennsylvania. enforcement, airports and all kinds of transportation, industrial operations, and hospitals—operates 24/7. People have come to value time so much that sleep is often regarded as an annoying interference, a wasteful state that you enter into when you do not have enough willpower to work harder and longer.”

David F. Dinges, PhD

It has become increasingly clear, however, that no matter how hectic our lives may be, we can no longer afford to ignore what research is telling us about the importance of sleep for our safety and mental and physical well-being.

Impact on Attention, Cognition, and Mood

While scientists are still working to identify and clarify all of the functions of sleep, 12 decades of studies—many of which have used the method of disrupting sleep and examining the consequences—have confirmed that sleep is necessary for our healthy functioning and even survival.

“We know for sure that sleep serves multiple functions,” says Dr. Dinges. “Nature tends to be very parsimonious in that it often uses a single system or biology in multiple ways to optimize the functioning of an organism. We know, for example, that sleep is critical for waking cognition—that is, for the ability to think clearly, to be vigilant and alert, and sustain attention. We also know that memories are consolidated during sleep, and that sleep serves a key role in emotional regulation.”

Studies conducted by Dr. Dinges and other scientists have shown that cognitive performance and vigilant attention begin to decline fairly quickly after more than 16 hours of continuous wakefulness, and that sleep deficits from partial sleep deprivation can accumulate over time, resulting in a steady deterioration in alertness. The widely used psychomotor vigilance test (PVT), a simple neurocognitive test developed by Dr. Dinges and colleagues that assesses an individual’s ability to sustain attention and respond to signals in a timely manner, has proven to be an exceptionally sensitive tool for capturing dose–response effects of sleep loss on neurobehavioral functioning. 13 The PVT also reliably detects sleep deficits caused by disrupted or fragmented sleep, and/or poorly timed sleep, which is important because a growing body of evidence suggests that the continuity and timing (or circadian alignment) of sleep may be as important as the total amount of time spent sleeping.

“We know that sleep is much more restorative of waking functions and health when it is consolidated and not fragmented,” explains Dr. Dinges. “That is, when sleep goes through the appropriate physiological sequences of non-REM (rapid eye movement) and REM states at night, and occurs when human sleep is temporally programmed by our circadian clock to occur. Such consolidated sleep is typically of a longer duration and better sleep quality than sleep taken at other times of the day, such as that which occurs with nightshift work, jet lag, and other conditions of circadian misalignment.”

Dr. Dinges and his colleagues have found that people whose daily sleep duration is inadequate, or repeatedly disrupted (e.g., by obstructive sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, pain or stress, or shiftwork or jet lag), often are not aware of their accumulating sleep deficits or the toll that these deficits can take on their waking cognitive functions, including their performance, working memory, cognitive speed, and accuracy. Inadequate sleep also can take a toll on psychological well-being, significantly affecting our emotional and psychosocial interpretation of events and exacerbating our stress levels. Studies have indicated that changes in mood may be due in part to the effects of sleep deprivation on the processing of emotional memory—in other words, our tendency to select and remember negative memories after inadequate sleep. 14

In one study conducted by Dr. Dinges and colleagues, participants’ mood was observed after they were confronted with “high” and “low” performance demands, following varying degrees of sleep deprivation. 15

“To our surprise, those who were sleep-deprived responded to low stressors in much the same way that people without any sleep deprivation tended to respond to high stressors,” said Dr. Dinges. “In other words, we tend to become much more sensitive emotionally and socially when we are sleep-deprived. That is what I like to call the ‘who was at my desk or who touched my coffee cup?’ phenomenon. I think we all have experienced having an extreme reaction or a very negative emotional response to a mild stressor when we have not had enough sleep.”

Aiming for the Sweet Spot

How much sleep is enough? After decades of investigation, it appears that scientists have gathered enough evidence to begin to answer that question. 16

“When duration of sleep drops below seven hours, and especially when it starts to move toward six and half hours or less, a number of different disorders begin to increase in prevalence,” says Dr. Dinges. “Most experts would agree that there is a kind of sweet spot that most people should aim for, and for the average healthy adult that zone is ideally somewhere between 7 and 7 and a half hours. That is what the consensus evaluations of more than a thousand scientific articles have yielded—the consensus of evaluations conducted by the AASM (American Academy of Sleep Medicine) and Sleep Research Society jointly.”

Numerous large U.S. surveys—beginning with a 1982 survey by the American Cancer Society—have been used to estimate the number of hours that most people spend sleeping. Many surveys have identified a worrisome prevalence of “short” sleepers (people who sleep 6 hours or less) among respondents, and a general trend toward decreasing sleep duration between 1975 and 2006. More recently, however, an analysis of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), spearheaded by Mathias Basner, MD, PhD, at the University of Pennsylvania 17 , has suggested that there may be cause for optimism.

“The analysis shows that there is a slight but steady increase in sleep time that stretches back to about 2003 or 2004,” says Dr. Dinges. “We think this increase, which is modest—at most a minute or two more per year—is due in part to the development of the field of sleep medicine, and public and scientific reports in the media about sleep loss contributing to accidents and catastrophes, and so forth. Ever so slowly, the message that it is important not to get sleep deprived, and to get help if you have a sleep disorder, has begun to penetrate to the public.”

The analysis notes that one sign of greater interest in sleep on the part of the public has been a significant increase in Google searches containing the word “sleep” since 2004. Data from the ATUS also suggest that over time, people have been willing to trade some of their daily activities in exchange for more sleep. It is important to note, says Dr. Dinges, that self-reports of time spent sleeping are not always accurate—they can be off by a half an hour or more, usually with people tending to estimate that they slept more than they did. He also notes that there is still a fairly large population sleeping 6 hours or less.

“Although there are signs that sleep time is increasing, it is not happening at nearly the dramatic rate that most experts would like to see,” says Dr. Dinges. “This is especially true for vulnerable populations. There is concern about school start times and bus times affecting the sleep of children and adolescents, and about extracurricular activities at the end of the school day sometimes leading to a delay in bed times for teenagers. All of this is an ongoing, evolving picture, with more research results coming out all the time, and with consequent changes in recommendations, to make sure that at least our most vulnerable populations are getting adequate sleep.”

Interindividual Differences in Vulnerability to Sleep Loss

While it is well established that the effects of sleep loss accumulate over time, with repeated exposure to inadequate, fragmented, or disrupted sleep, the degree to which individuals demonstrate adverse effects of inadequate sleep can vary considerably. 18

“We have learned that there are astonishingly mysterious phenotypes, or trait-like differences, in how vulnerable people are to sleep loss,” says Dr. Dinges. “This is still a relatively new area of research, and it has only been in the past few years that scientists have begun to replicate early findings regarding these phenotypic differences in vulnerability to the negative neurobehavioral effects of sleep loss. The interindividual differences that have been observed so far raise some extremely provocative scientific questions. We may find that there is something in waking biology that can substitute for, or somehow reduce, the impact of sleep loss on waking functioning, but thus far there is no evidence as to what that might be.”

Differences among individuals exist with regard to both the effects of sleep loss and the ability to recover from the effects of sleep loss. Differences in performance also have been shown to be task-dependent, suggesting that people who are vulnerable to the effects of sleep loss in one or more cognitive or neurobehavioral domains may be resistant to the effects of sleep loss in others. To better understand interindividual variability, scientists are investigating possible genetic mechanisms that may underlie complex interactions between circadian and sleep homeostatic systems—the systems that affect our drive for sleep as well as our alertness and performance during waking hours. A current goal is to discover biomarkers that may help predict individual performance after varying degrees of sleep loss. 19 And one hope is that biomarkers—ideally in the form of a simple “roadside” test such as a breathalyzer—may eventually be used to detect sleep loss-related impairment in drivers or in individuals responsible for operating sophisticated equipment or machinery. To date, no viable candidates have been found.

Investigators also are shedding light on the role that age may play in resilience to sleep loss. The results of one recent study indicate that younger adults are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of chronic sleep loss and recurring circadian disruption than older adults. 20 Although the neurobiological basis for these age-related differences is not yet understood, such findings may help to inform new approaches to the prevention of drowsy driving and related motor-vehicle accidents among young drivers.

Dr. Dinges emphasizes that findings regarding interindividual differences in response to sleep loss and in recovery from sleep loss should not diminish the message that adequate sleep is critical for everyone.

“Research has shown us that sleep is not an optional activity,” says Dr. Dinges. “There is no question that sleep is fundamentally conserved across species and across lifespans, and that any effort to eliminate it has been unsuccessful. We must plan our lives in the time domain with a serious consideration for sleep—planning when to sleep, ensuring that we get adequate sleep, and making sure that our sleep is not disturbed by disorders or diseases, whether or not they are sleep-related.”

Addressing Sleep Disorders

As connections between sleep disruption and both disease and mortality have become more firmly established, accurate and efficient diagnosis and management of sleep disorders (see Table 1 ) have become increasingly critical. Recent directions in the field of sleep medicine include a move toward patient-centered care, greater collaboration between specialists and primary care physicians, and the incorporation of new tools—including home-based diagnostic tests and novel electronic questionnaires—in the effort to create a comprehensive yet more personalized approach to assessment and treatment.

ICSD-3 Major Diagnostic Sections *

A chief goal is to improve the diagnosis of sleep disorders. Although approximately 70 million people in the U.S. have at least one sleep disorder, experts estimate that up to 80% of sleep disorders may go undetected or undiagnosed. One major challenge that clinicians face during the initial assessment of people with sleep disorders is the process of identifying and sorting out comorbidities. Untangling the causes and effects in bidirectional comorbidities can be particularly difficult. For example, insomnia—by far the most common sleep disorder—often is complicated by the presence of another sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome.

“Some experts have even suggested that all cases of insomnia coexist with, or are caused by, another sleep disorder, most commonly sleep apnea,” says Clete A. Kushida, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, and Division Chief and Medical Director of Stanford Sleep Medicine. “I’m not sure I would go quite that far, but certainly bidirectional comorbidities among individuals who experience sleep disorders are common. For example, pain syndromes—including back pain and limb pain, especially among older patients—are common comorbidities in patients with insomnia. Mood disorders also frequently occur in patients who experience insomnia.”

Comorbidities can complicate treatment and often require sleep specialists to collaborate with not only primary care physicians but also specialists in other therapeutic areas.

“If, for example, a person with insomnia also has been diagnosed with depression by a psychiatrist,” says Dr. Kushida, “our goal is to work hand in hand with the psychiatrist to find the right medication. There are both sedating and alerting antidepressants, and a patient may need to try one medication for a couple of weeks to months, slowly increasing the dose to a therapeutic level, until the effect on both the depression and the patient’s sleep can be determined. For some individuals, an alerting antidepressant can cause poor sleep, which in turn can exacerbate the depression. The process of achieving the right dose of the right medication can be complex, and benefits from a collaboration between specialists.”

Undetected obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with chronic pain, or other serious illnesses, can result in potentially dangerous comorbidities. Opioids, for example, are known to have adverse effects on respiration, and can lead to central sleep apnea (CSA)—shallow and irregular or interrupted breathing and sustained hypoventilation—a potentially lethal condition that can intensify the consequences of OSA. These risks underscore the need to improve methods for identifying and properly diagnosing the estimated 23.5 million U.S. adults with OSA. Public education and advocacy efforts are already helping to improve detection—in part by helping to address misconceptions about OSA.

“One of the biggest misconceptions is that only people who are significantly overweight experience sleep apnea,” says Dr. Kushida. “In fact, only up to 67% of people who have OSA are overweight, the rest are of normal weight. OSA also can be caused by craniofacial dysmorphism, or a defect of the airway that occurs during development. A narrow airway caused by deficient growth of the craniofacial skeleton, particularly the jaws, can become narrower and more prone to collapse with age, leading to sleep apnea.”

Treating Insomnia: The Value of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Insomnia, the most prevalent sleep disorder, affects approximately one third of all adults and is the most common condition that family and primary-care physicians encounter. According to the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD-3), chronic insomnia is the inability to attain sufficient sleep (despite adequate opportunity) for at least three nights per week for three months or longer, with negative daytime consequences. For most people, the disorder is transient, but for approximately 10% to 15% of those who experience insomnia (around 30 million people) it becomes chronic. Although pharmacologic treatments for insomnia ( Table 2 ) can be effective, most experts now recommend against the long-term use of pharmacotherapy.

Selected Pharmaceutical Treatments for Insomnia 21 , 27

“If a person has been diagnosed with chronic insomnia, the only treatment that has been shown to have long-term benefit is cognitive behavioral therapy, “says Dr. Kushida. “Medications really should be considered short-term treatments, because patients tend to develop dependence on, or tolerance to, hypnotic drugs. In our clinic, we commonly see that, over time, medications stop having an effect, and that means that patients may try higher doses of a medication, or keep switching to different medications. So, medications are a temporary solution—they just put a Band-Aid on the problem of insomnia, whereas cognitive behavioral therapy targets one of the pathways toward success.”

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which involves techniques that work in part by reducing cognitive and somatic arousal, is estimated to be effective in approximately 70% to 80% of people who experience chronic insomnia. Dr. Kushida notes that while drugs can sometimes be useful in the treatment of acute insomnia, they become problematic after acute insomnia transitions to chronic insomnia.

“A person might be an OK sleeper for several years, and then suddenly experience a traumatic event, such as the loss of a job, a divorce, or the death of a loved one, resulting in very poor sleep,” says Dr. Kushida. “Down the road, that person might obtain a better job, overcome grief, or find a new relationship, but continue to experience insomnia. We think in some cases the transition from acute insomnia to chronic insomnia occurs because the behavioral event triggers something in the person’s physiology that may lead to long-term changes. Once they are in a chronic insomnia phase, we tell patients that CBT is the only truly effective intervention.”

If a patient is already taking hypnotics, Dr. Kushida says that he will gradually wean the patient off medications while introducing CBT. He notes that often it is necessary for sleep specialists to manage the expectations of chronic sufferers.

Clete A. Kushida, MD, PhD

“We sometimes have to let patients with chronic insomnia know that we may never get them back to where they were when they had optimal sleep,” Dr. Kushida explains. “The behavioral methods we use work well, and usually we can get patients to the point where the insomnia is having less of an impact on their quality of life. Our inability to completely restore the patient’s ability to sleep well may partly be explained by as yet unidentified changes in his or her neurophysiology or neurochemistry. Some patients with chronic insomnia can begin to sleep normally again, but for the vast majority, we aim to make insomnia less of a burden on a patient’s daily life.”

Improving Clinical Research

In the field of sleep medicine, as in many other therapeutic areas, future directions in clinical trial research will place an emphasis on patient engagement and patient-centered outcomes.

“Perhaps the most important aim these days when developing and implementing any type of large-scale clinical research study is to incorporate the patient’s perspective,” says Dr. Kushida, who is currently analyzing the results of a comparative effectiveness sleep study sponsored by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). 22 The study, designed and conducted by a team at Stanford, introduced a new model of patient-centered, coordinated care and tested it against conventional outpatient treatment for sleep disorders.

“The patient’s perspective is so invaluable in guiding the success of a study that ideally it should be incorporated right at the inception of a research question or idea,” says Dr. Kushida. “When you are designing an especially complicated trial, for example, it is easy to incorporate a lot of tests and measures without being aware of the burden these can place on the participants. It’s critical to learn from patients whether they are overwhelmed by the number of tests, or whether travel time or the amount of time they need to take off from work may be impractical.”

Other efforts to improve clinical research include those focused on correcting for and/or eliminating several confounding variables that tend to plague sleep research. The surprising power of the placebo effect, 23 the related disconnect between objective and subjective evaluations of sleep loss and recovery from sleep loss, variable adherence to treatments, and, more recently, deceptive practices among clinical trial participants, are a few examples.

The placebo effect, which refers to any outcome that may be attributable to the expectations of clinical trial participants rather than to the drug or device being tested, can be especially problematic in experimental protocols that involve self-reports of sleep quality.

“Clinical trials involving patients with disorders such as insomnia or RLS that rely solely on subjective measures, or ratings of severity based on patient report, are particularly vulnerable to the placebo effect,” says Dr. Kushida. “It has been demonstrated that when these patients believe that they are receiving the study drug or device the likelihood of their experiencing a positive effect can increase significantly. There have been efforts to develop or introduce new objective endpoints in these studies, which may help with this problem.”

Achieving the right balance of subjective and objective measures of sleep is an important goal in both research and clinical practice. The current gold standard for objective assessment of sleep is polysomnography (PSG), which includes electrophysiological recordings of brain activity (EEG), muscle activity (EMG), and eye movements (EOG). A valuable, non-invasive method for determining sleep continuity and sleep architecture, PSG has been an indispensable objective endpoint in clinical trials, but it is expensive and not always practical. Novel approaches to objective measurement, including actigraphy, which may be used to help minimize recall bias and complement subjective measures of sleep (e.g., sleep logs or diaries), still have drawbacks. 24

“The problem with wearable devices right now,” says Dr. Kushida, “is that they tend to overestimate sleep, sometimes by as much as an hour. They also are not yet capable of accurately detecting different stages of sleep, such as non-REM and REM sleep. Because of our proximity to Silicon Valley, our laboratory tests a lot of these new devices, and often by the time we have finished testing one prototype, new ones have emerged. The product cycles are rapid, and the companies keep incorporating newer and newer technology. So, down the road, within about five to ten years, I think these devices will likely estimate sleep and detect sleep stages with precision.”

Also, objective tools are needed for addressing problems with adherence to treatment. One important current aim is to detect and correct for non-obvious factors that result in failure to adhere to treatment, whether unintended or deliberate, to ensure that trial outcomes accurately reflect the efficacy of a drug, medical device, or behavioral intervention. 25 A related problem is deliberate deception by trial participants. As part of a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)-supported study focused on detecting and correcting for adherence problems, Dr. Kushida and colleagues began to explore the prevalence of deceptive practices among clinical trial participants. 26

“We found that deception among clinical trial participants is pretty common and that there is quite a range of deceptive practices, “says Dr. Kushida. “They include underreported drug holidays, fabrication or withholding of medical histories, pill dumping, exaggerated symptoms, and falsification of current health status. It’s important that we find a way to address these deceptive practices because both the integrity of research data and the safety of participants are at risk.”

Dr. Kushida adds that newer tools, such as electronic monitoring of pill dispensing and statistical predictive adherence models, may uncover and remedy pressing problems related to adherence and deceptive practices. “It already takes about 12 years for a new drug to be approved, and about three to five years for a new device to be approved. When deceptive practices are discovered too late, it can lead to the invalidation of research findings and further delays in approving much-needed treatments.”

Enhancing clinical research in the field will require a cooperative, international effort focused on advancing knowledge about sleep, circadian rhythms, and sleep disorders worldwide. During Dr. Kushida’s tenure as inaugural president of the World Sleep Society (WSS), he led an initiative to create international sleep fellowships to prepare physicians and scientists from various countries for future leadership roles in basic and/or clinical sleep research. He also oversaw the development of an International Sleep Research Network, designed to help sleep scientists and clinicians find collaborators with similar clinical/research interests. As the WSS continues to offer new services and expand its programs, it will be with an awareness of the needs of disadvantaged populations and the importance of access to appropriate treatment.

“One initiative of the WSS involves reviewing current published guidelines in various countries, to determine whether they meet international standards,” says Dr. Kushida. “Many guidelines are region-specific and list only medications approved in specific countries or regions. As we review the guidelines, we endorse them with caveats; we may note that particular treatments for insomnia are recommended, and when these are not available we recommend acceptable substitutes. The goal is to ensure that specialists can use practice guidelines in whichever country they practice sleep medicine, and that patients are receiving the best possible treatment available.”

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• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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NCCIH Clinical Digest

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Psychological and Physical Approaches for Sleep Disorders: What the Science Says

Clinical Guidelines, Scientific Literature, Info for Patients:  Psychological and Physical Approaches for Sleep Disorders

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Current clinical practice guidelines from the  American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2021) recommend psychological and behavioral interventions in the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adults. 

• The American Academy of Sleep Medicine guidelines state: “We recommend that clinicians use multicomponent cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) for the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adults (strong recommendation). We suggest that clinicians use relaxation therapy as a single-component therapy for the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adults (conditional recommendation).” The authors of the guidelines also noted that there were fewer than three studies meeting their inclusion criteria for the use of cognitive therapy, paradoxical intention, mindfulness, biofeedback, and intensive sleep retraining; as a result, no recommendations were made about these treatments.

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• Clinical practice guidelines  issued by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine in 2021 recommend psychological and behavioral interventions for the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adults. The guidelines state: “We recommend that clinicians use multicomponent cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) for the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adults (strong recommendation).”
• A 2018 analysis of pooled data from 4 randomized controlled trials of 546 peri- and postmenopausal women with insomnia and bothersome vasomotor symptoms found that CBT-I produced the greatest reduction in Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) from baseline compared to an education control. 
• A  2014 randomized controlled trial  examined the comparative efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy, tai chi, and a sleep seminar education control in 123 older adults with chronic and primary insomnia. The study found that cognitive behavioral therapy performed better than tai chi and sleep seminar education in remission of clinical insomnia. The cognitive behavioral therapy group also showed greater improvement in sleep quality, sleep parameters, fatigue, and depressive symptoms than the tai chi and sleep seminar education groups.

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• CBT-I is considered safe.

.header_greentext{color:green!important;font-size:24px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_bluetext{color:blue!important;font-size:18px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_redtext{color:red!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_darkred{color:#803d2f!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_purpletext{color:purple!important;font-size:31px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_yellowtext{color:yellow!important;font-size:20px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_blacktext{color:black!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_whitetext{color:white!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_darkred{color:#803d2f!important;}.Green_Header{color:green!important;font-size:24px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Blue_Header{color:blue!important;font-size:18px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Red_Header{color:red!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Purple_Header{color:purple!important;font-size:31px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Yellow_Header{color:yellow!important;font-size:20px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Black_Header{color:black!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.White_Header{color:white!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;} Relaxation Techniques

There is a small amount of low-quality evidence that relaxation techniques by themselves can help with chronic insomnia.  Relaxation techniques may be recommended in certain situations, depending on individual preferences, health provider qualifications, and treatment availability. 

Current clinical practice guidelines from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2021) conditionally recommend relaxation therapy as a single-component therapy for the treatment of chronic insomnia disorder in adults. 

• Clinical guidelines from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2021) made a conditional recommendation to use relaxation therapy as a single-component therapy based on “a small body of low-quality evidence from five studies showing clinically meaningful improvements in one critical outcome, consideration that some patients prefer relaxation therapy, the fact that mental health providers are trained to deliver this form of treatment, and the potential for relaxation therapy to require only limited resources.”
• A 2018 systematic review looked at 27 studies of psychological interventions to try to improve sleep. The studies involved 2,776 college students who ranged from healthy sleepers to those with a diagnosed sleep disorder. About 22 percent of the studies investigated “relaxation, mindfulness, hypnotherapy” treatments. This review recommended cognitive behavioral therapy to improve sleep in college students. The review also found that relaxation approaches helped somewhat with sleep quality and sleep problems but especially with mental health. The authors recommended that “relaxation, mindfulness, hypnotherapy” treatments be combined with cognitive behavioral therapy as a way to enhance mental health benefits.
• Relaxation therapies for insomnia are considered safe.

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Yoga has been shown to be helpful for sleep in several studies of cancer patients, women with sleep problems, and older adults and in individual studies of other population groups, including people with arthritis and women with menopause symptoms. However, a 2019 clinical practice guideline from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Department of Defense said there was insufficient evidence to recommend for or against yoga for treating insomnia.

• A  2020 systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 studies involving a total of 1,832 participants found positive effects of yoga in 16 randomized controlled trials, compared with the control group, in improving sleep quality among women using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); however, 2 studies revealed no effects of yoga compared to the control group in reducing insomnia among women using ISI. Seven studies revealed no evidence for effects of yoga compared with the control group in improving sleep quality for women with breast cancer using PSQI, while four studies revealed no evidence for the effects of yoga compared with the control group in improving the sleep quality for peri/postmenopausal women using PSQI.
• A  2020 secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial involving 320 adults with chronic low-back pain and poor sleep quality prior to the intervention found modest but statistically significant improvements in sleep quality in the yoga (12 weekly yoga classes) and physical therapy groups.
• A  2019 systematic review of 11 studies that evaluated the use of yoga to manage stress and burnout in health care workers concluded that yoga is effective in improving physical problems and quality of sleep, as well as reducing stress levels and burnout. However, the authors of the review noted that it would be necessary to broaden the subject further and acquire more robust scientific evidence by designing and implementing research studies equipped with a solid methodological structure on bigger sample groups.
• A  2013 multicenter, randomized controlled trial evaluated the effect of yoga on sleep quality in 410 cancer survivors suffering from moderate or greater sleep disruption between 2 and 24 months after surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation therapy. The study found that compared with standard care, yoga participants demonstrated greater improvements in global sleep quality and subjective sleep quality, daytime dysfunction, wake after sleep onset, sleep efficiency, and medication use at postintervention.
• A  2022 randomized controlled trial  investigated the effects of yoga (duration of 20 weeks) on menopausal symptoms and sleep quality across menopause statuses in 208 women. Based on participant responses to questionnaires, the study found that yoga decreased menopausal symptoms, with the strongest effects noted in postmenopausal women, followed by perimenopausal women. In addition, yoga significantly improved sleep quality in postmenopausal and perimenopausal women after controlling for social support, depression, anxiety, stress, and menopausal symptoms; however, yoga did not affect sleep quality in premenopausal women.
• Yoga is generally considered a safe form of physical activity for healthy people when performed properly, under the guidance of a qualified instructor. However, as with other forms of physical activity, injuries can occur. 
• The most common injuries are sprains and strains, and the parts of the body most commonly injured are the knee or lower leg. Serious injuries are rare. The risk of injury associated with yoga is lower than that for higher impact physical activities.
• Hot yoga has special risks related to overheating and dehydration.
• Pregnant women, older adults, and people with health conditions should talk with their health care providers and the yoga instructor about their individual needs. They may need to avoid or modify some yoga poses and practices. 

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Results of several studies, using objective and subjective measures, have shown that tai chi may be helpful for people with sleep problems. However, a 2019 clinical practice guideline from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Department of Defense said there was insufficient evidence to recommend for or against using tai chi to treat insomnia.

• A 2020 systematic review and meta-analysis of 20 randomized controlled studies from 5 countries involving a total of 1,703 patients found that compared with nontherapeutic and other active treatments, tai chi has a positive effect on improving sleep quality. An in-depth analysis showed that 24-form and 8-form Yang-style tai chi had significant positive effects on sleep quality, as assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).
• A 2021 randomized controlled trial assigned 320 participants 60 years or older and with chronic insomnia to three groups: 12-week tai chi training, 12-week conventional exercise, and no intervention control. The study found that compared with the control group, the exercise and tai chi groups showed improved sleep efficiency, reductions of wake time after sleep onset, and reduced awakenings as measured by actigraphy. However, there were no significant differences between the exercise and tai chi groups.
• Tai chi appears to be safe. A 2019 meta-analysis of 24 studies (1,794 participants) found that the frequency of adverse events was similar for people doing tai chi, another active intervention, or no intervention. 

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A 2019 clinical practice guideline from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Department of Defense said there was not enough evidence to know whether mindfulness meditation is helpful for people with insomnia, and a 2021 clinical practice guideline from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine said there was not enough evidence to make recommendations on using mindfulness by itself for insomnia. 

• A 2022 review of 20 studies and 2,890 participants found that mindfulness-based stress reduction might be ineffective for improving sleep quality in people with insomnia, but the authors noted that the studies were small and showed bias.
• A   2019 systematic review and meta-analysis of 18 studies (1,654 total participants) found that mindfulness meditation practices improved sleep quality more than education-based treatments. However, the effects of mindfulness meditation approaches on sleep quality were no different than those of evidence-based treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy and exercise.
• Results from a  2015 randomized controlled trial  involving 60 adults aged 75 years and over with chronic insomnia suggest that the mindfulness-based stress reduction program could be a useful treatment for chronic insomnia for this age group. 
• Meditation and mindfulness practices usually are considered to have few risks. 

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A 2022 review of 13 studies with 1,007 adult participants found that listening to music may lead to improved reports of sleep quality among people with insomnia. However, there was not enough good-quality evidence to determine the effect of listening to music on the severity of insomnia or the number of times a person wakes up. 

• A  2022 review of 13 studies with 1,007 adult participants found that listening to music may lead to improved reports of sleep quality among people with insomnia. However, there was not enough good-quality evidence to determine the effect of listening to music on the severity of insomnia or the number of times a person wakes up. The results showed that listening to music may slightly improve sleep-onset latency, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and daytime effects.
• In general, research studies of music-based interventions do not show any negative effects. However, listening to music at too high a volume can contribute to noise-induced hearing loss. 
• Because music can be associated with strong memories or emotional reactions, some people may be distressed by exposure to specific pieces or types of music.

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A 2019 clinical practice guideline from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Department of Defense said there was not enough evidence to recommend for or against using acupuncture for insomnia, except for a weak recommendation for auricular acupuncture, which involves specific points on the outer ear. Results from some studies suggest that auricular acupuncture may help improve insomnia; however, many of the studies conducted on acupuncture for sleep disorders are small and are of low quality.

• A  2021 review of 11 studies and 775 participants suggested that acupuncture may help improve insomnia, but the studies were small, differed from each other in many ways (e.g., treatment dosage, acupoint selection), and judged to be low quality. 
• A  2019 clinical practice guideline from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Department of Defense said there was not enough evidence to recommend for or against using acupuncture for insomnia, except for a weak recommendation for auricular acupuncture, which involves specific points on the outer ear. 
• A  2020 evaluation of 7 systematic reviews (10,001 participants) on auricular acupuncture for insomnia found that the reviews suggested auricular acupuncture may be beneficial, but the quality of most of the reviews was low or critically low and the quality of the studies within the reviews was poor.
• Relatively few complications from using acupuncture have been reported.  However, complications have resulted from use of nonsterile needles and improper delivery of treatments.  When not delivered properly, acupuncture can cause serious adverse effects, including infections, punctured organs, and injury to the central nervous system. 

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• Cocchiara RA, Peruzzo M, Mannocci A, et al.  The use of yoga to manage stress and burnout in healthcare workers: a systematic review .  Journal of Clinical Medicine . 2019;8(3):284.
• Cui H, Wang Q, Pedersen M, et al.  The safety of tai chi: a meta-analysis of adverse events in randomized controlled trials .  Contemporary Clinical Trials . 2019;82:85-92. 
• Edinger JD, Arnedt JT, Bertisch SM, et al.  Behavioral and psychological treatments for chronic insomnia disorder in adults: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline .  Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine . 2021;17(2):255-262.
• Friedrich A, Schlarb AA.  Let’s talk about sleep: a systematic review of psychological interventions to improve sleep in college students .  Journal of Sleep Research . 2018;27(1):4-22. 
• Guthrie KA, Larson JC, Ensrud KE, et al.  Effects of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions on insomnia symptoms and self-reported sleep quality in women with hot flashes: a pooled analysis of individual participant data from four MsFLASH trials .  Sleep . 2018;41(1):zsx190. 
• Huang J, Shen M, Qin X, et al.  Effectiveness of auricular acupuncture for insomnia: an overview of systematic reviews .  Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.  2020;2020:6920902.
• Irwin MR, Olmstead R, Carrillo C, et al.  Cognitive behavioral therapy vs. tai chi for late life insomnia and inflammatory risk: a randomized controlled comparative efficacy trial .  Sleep . 2014;37(9):1543-1552. 
• Jespersen KV, Pando-Naude V, Koenig J, et al.  Listening to music for insomnia in adults .  Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews . 2022;8(8):CD010459.
• Li H, Chen J, Xu G, et al.  The effect of tai chi for improving sleep quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis .  Journal of Affective Disorders . 2020;274:1102-1112. 
• Mustian KM, Sprod LK, Janelsins M, et al.  Multicenter, randomized controlled trial of yoga for sleep quality among cancer survivors .  Journal of Clinical Oncology . 2013;31(26):3233-3241.
• Mysliwiec V, Martin JL, Ulmer CS, et al.  The management of chronic insomnia disorder and obstructive sleep apnea: synopsis of the 2019 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Department of Defense Clinical Practice Guidelines .  Annals of Internal Medicine . 2020;172(5):325-336.
• Roseen EJ, Gerlovin H, Femia A, et al.  Yoga, physical therapy, and back pain education for sleep quality in low-income racially diverse adults with chronic low back pain: a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial .  Journal of General Internal Medicine . 2020;35(1):167-176. 
• Rusch HL, Rosario M, Levison LM, et al.  The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials .  Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.  2019;1445(1):5-16. 
• Siu PM, Yu AP, Tam BT, et al.  Effects of tai chi or exercise on sleep in older adults with insomnia: a randomized clinical trial .  JAMA Network Open . 2021;4(2):e2037199. 
• Susanti HD, Sonko I, Chang P-C, et al.  Effects of yoga on menopausal symptoms and sleep quality across menopause statuses: a randomized controlled trial .  Nursing and Health Sciences . 2022;24(2):368-379. 
• Wang W-L, Chen K-H, Pan Y-C, et al.  The effect of yoga on sleep quality and insomnia in women with sleep problems: a systematic review and meta-analysis .  BMC Psychiatry . 2020;20(1):195. 
• Zhang J-X, Liu X-H, Xie X-H, et al.  Mindfulness-based stress reduction for chronic insomnia in adults older than 75 years: a randomized, controlled, single-blind clinical trial .  Explore (NY).  2015;11(3):180-185. 
• Zhao F-Y, Fu Q-Q, Kennedy GA, et al.  Can acupuncture improve objective sleep indices in patients with primary insomnia? A systematic review and meta-analysis .  Sleep Medicine . 2021;80:244-259.

NCCIH Clinical Digest is a service of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NIH, DHHS. NCCIH Clinical Digest, a monthly e-newsletter, offers evidence-based information on complementary health approaches, including scientific literature searches, summaries of NCCIH-funded research, fact sheets for patients, and more.

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health is dedicated to exploring complementary health products and practices in the context of rigorous science, training complementary health researchers, and disseminating authoritative information to the public and professionals. For additional information, call NCCIH’s Clearinghouse toll-free at 1-888-644-6226, or visit the NCCIH website at nccih.nih.gov . NCCIH is 1 of 27 institutes and centers at the National Institutes of Health, the Federal focal point for medical research in the United States.

Content is in the public domain and may be reprinted, except if marked as copyrighted (©). Please credit the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health as the source. All copyrighted material is the property of its respective owners and may not be reprinted without their permission.

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Guest Series | Dr. Matthew Walker: The Biology of Sleep & Your Unique Sleep Needs

Listen or watch on your favorite platforms.

In this episode 1 of a 6-part special series on sleep with Dr. Matthew Walker, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience and psychology and founder of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of the book “Why We Sleep” discusses the essential role that sleep plays in our health. We cover how sleep affects our hormones, immune system, learning and memory, mood, appetite, and weight regulation.

We also discuss what causes the urge to sleep, how sleep is structured throughout the night, and the biology of the different phases of sleep. We also teach you how to determine your individualized sleep needs, including your chronotype (best waking and to-bed time), tips for combat snoring and insomnia, and your QQRT (Quality, Quantity, Regularity, and Timing)—a key framework for optimizing your sleep and therefore daytime energy and focus, and overall health.

The next episode in this special series explores how to improve one’s sleep.

Journal Articles

• Coordinated human sleeping brainwaves map peripheral body glucose homeostasis ( Cell Reports Medicine )
• Partial sleep deprivation reduces natural killer cell activity in humans ( Psychosomatic Medicine )
• Daylight Saving Time and Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Meta-Analysis ( Journal of Clinical Medicine )
• Sleepy Punishers Are Harsh Punishers: Daylight Saving Time and Legal Sentences ( Psychological Science )
• Effects of insufficient sleep on circadian rhythmicity and expression amplitude of the human blood transcriptome ( Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences )
• A systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the relationship between sleep duration/quality, mental toughness and resilience amongst healthy individuals ( Sleep Medicine Reviews )
• Negative effects of restricted sleep on facial appearance and social appeal ( R. Soc. Open Sci )
• Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration: A prospective cohort study ( Sleep )

Other Resources

• Chronotype Calculator

People Mentioned

• Allan Rechtschaffen : sleep research pioneer

About this Guest

Dr. matthew walker.

Matthew Walker, Ph.D., is a professor of neuroscience and psychology and founder of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkley, and the author of the book, “Why We Sleep.”

• " Why We Sleep "
• Academic profile
• MasterClass
• 00:00:00 Importance of Sleep
• 00:02:24 Sponsors: Eight Sleep, BetterHelp & LMNT
• 00:06:00 Sleep; Non-REM & REM Sleep
• 00:11:40 Sleep Cycles, Individuality, Women vs. Men
• 00:14:49 Tool: Wakefulness in Bed, Insomnia
• 00:19:08 Non-REM Stages of Sleep
• 00:27:05 Role of Deep Sleep
• 00:34:02 Sponsor: AG1
• 00:35:15 Light Sleep Stages, Hypnogogic Jerks
• 00:42:00 REM Sleep, Paralysis & Bizarre Dreams; “Falling” Asleep
• 00:49:09 Tools: Body Position & Sleep; Snoring & Sleep Apnea
• 00:57:43 Yawning & Theories, Contagion
• 01:04:03 Nodding Off, Afternoon & Postprandial Dip
• 01:08:46 Sponsor: InsideTracker
• 01:09:51 Sleep, Animals & Evolution
• 01:14:09 Poor Sleep & Health Consequences, Sleep Deprivation
• 01:27:13 Positive Effects of Good Sleep, Health Improvements
• 01:31:56 Sleep & Mood; Appetite & Weight Management
• 01:42:55 Sleep Deprivation & Looking Tired, “Beauty Sleep”
• 01:47:57 Tool: Getting Good Sleep, QQRT Macros, Quantity & Quality
• 01:56:45 Tool: Sleep Regularity, Mortality Risk
• 02:03:15 Tool: Sleep Timing, Chronotypes
• 02:14:21 Chronotypes & Insomnia, Circadian Rhythm, Shift Work
• 02:20:31 Tool: Sleep Tests, Alarm Clock, Micro-Sleeps
• 02:27:27 Sleep Inertia & Waking; Afternoon Dip, Optimum Performance
• 02:34:19 Causes of Sleep: Circadian Rhythm, Sleep Pressure
• 02:43:02 Adenosine & Sleepiness
• 02:46:13 Tool: Growth Hormone & Deep Sleep
• 02:50:47 Cortisol & Circadian Rhythm, “Tired But Wired”
• 02:57:24 Zero-Cost Support, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, YouTube Feedback, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter

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Sleep disorders articles from across Nature Portfolio

Sleep disorders are a group of conditions in which the normal sleep pattern or sleep behaviours are disturbed. Primary sleep disorders include insomnia, hypersomnia, obstructive sleep apnoea and parasomnias (abnormal sleep behaviours, such as sleepwalking and rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder).

Latest Research and Reviews

Effect of a nutraceutical combination on sleep quality among people with impaired sleep: a randomised, placebo-controlled trial

• Sebastián Antonio Gutiérrez-Romero
• Erika Sofía Torres-Narváez
• Carlos O. Mendivil

Increasing obstructive sleep apnea risk is associated with albuminuria in Korean adults: cross-sectional analysis

• Suk Won Chang
• Ju Wan Kang

Mediating roles of sleep quality and resilience in the relationships between chronotypes and mental health symptoms

• Mimi S. H. Ho
• Way K. W. Lau

Multi-night cortico-basal recordings reveal mechanisms of NREM slow-wave suppression and spontaneous awakenings in Parkinson’s disease

Using at-home intracranial DBS recordings in PD participants, the authors found subcortical beta has an inverse effect on cortical slow-wave in NREM sleep, rises before awakenings and found >88% accuracy in NREM vs Wake classification in brief 5 s epochs.

• Md Fahim Anjum
• Simon Little

Digital automation of transdermal drug delivery with high spatiotemporal resolution

Microneedle patches that can actively address individual needles are challenging to realize. Here, the authors introduce a spatiotemporal on-demand patch for precise and personalized drug delivery, utilizing electrically triggered control with drug-loaded microneedles and biocompatible metallic membranes.

• Yihang Wang

Exome sequencing identifies genes associated with sleep-related traits

The authors conducted a comprehensive exome-wide association analysis on eight sleep-related traits. The researchers identified 22 new genes associated with various aspects of sleep, such as chronotype, daytime sleepiness, daytime napping, snoring and sleep apnoea, highlighting the importance of large-scale genomic studies in unravelling the genetic basis of sleep-related traits.

• Chen-Jie Fei

News and Comment

Pineal gland denervation derails sleep in heart disease.

• Felicity Tournant

Heart disease causes sleep disturbances via neuroimmune mechanisms

A new study reveals that the disrupted sleep patterns that are frequently observed in patients with cardiac disease are driven by immune-mediated sympathetic denervation and dysfunction of the pineal gland, which leads to a decrease in the circulating levels of melatonin and subsequent sleep disruption.

• Irene Fernández-Ruiz

Sweet dreams are made of these?

A novel orexin receptor antagonist improved sleep quality in people with insomnia, without residual effects on daytime functioning.

• Karen O’Leary

Cortical blood flow associated with cognitive decline in REM sleep behaviour disorder

Prodromal parkinson disease — time is brain.

Biomarkers that predict conversion from isolated REM sleep behaviour disorder to Parkinson disease are urgently needed. A new study finds that detection of misfolded α-synuclein in the cerebrospinal fluid is a good marker of conversion risk, but an inability to predict the timeline of progression might limit its utility.

• Sandrina Weber
• Brit Mollenhauer

Decreased NREM sleep linked with tauopathy

• Rebecca Kelsey

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50+ Research Topics for Psychology Papers

How to Find Psychology Research Topics for Your Student Paper

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

• Specific Branches of Psychology
• Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy
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• Famous Experiments
• Historical Figures
• Specific Careers
• Case Studies
• Literature Reviews
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Are you searching for a great topic for your psychology paper ? Sometimes it seems like coming up with topics of psychology research is more challenging than the actual research and writing. Fortunately, there are plenty of great places to find inspiration and the following list contains just a few ideas to help get you started.

Finding a solid topic is one of the most important steps when writing any type of paper. It can be particularly important when you are writing a psychology research paper or essay. Psychology is such a broad topic, so you want to find a topic that allows you to adequately cover the subject without becoming overwhelmed with information.

I can always tell when a student really cares about the topic they chose; it comes through in the writing. My advice is to choose a topic that genuinely interests you, so you’ll be more motivated to do thorough research.

In some cases, such as in a general psychology class, you might have the option to select any topic from within psychology's broad reach. Other instances, such as in an  abnormal psychology  course, might require you to write your paper on a specific subject such as a psychological disorder.

As you begin your search for a topic for your psychology paper, it is first important to consider the guidelines established by your instructor.

Research Topics Within Specific Branches of Psychology

The key to selecting a good topic for your psychology paper is to select something that is narrow enough to allow you to really focus on the subject, but not so narrow that it is difficult to find sources or information to write about.

One approach is to narrow your focus down to a subject within a specific branch of psychology. For example, you might start by deciding that you want to write a paper on some sort of social psychology topic. Next, you might narrow your focus down to how persuasion can be used to influence behavior .

Other social psychology topics you might consider include:

• Prejudice and discrimination (i.e., homophobia, sexism, racism)
• Social cognition
• Person perception
• Social control and cults
• Persuasion, propaganda, and marketing
• Attraction, romance, and love
• Nonverbal communication
• Prosocial behavior

Psychology Research Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy

Exploring a psychological disorder or a specific treatment modality can also be a good topic for a psychology paper. Some potential abnormal psychology topics include specific psychological disorders or particular treatment modalities, including:

• Eating disorders
• Borderline personality disorder
• Seasonal affective disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Antisocial personality disorder
• Profile a  type of therapy  (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy, group therapy, psychoanalytic therapy)

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Cognition

Some of the possible topics you might explore in this area include thinking, language, intelligence, and decision-making. Other ideas might include:

• False memories
• Speech disorders
• Problem-solving

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Development

In this area, you might opt to focus on issues pertinent to  early childhood  such as language development, social learning, or childhood attachment or you might instead opt to concentrate on issues that affect older adults such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Some other topics you might consider include:

• Language acquisition
• Media violence and children
• Learning disabilities
• Gender roles
• Child abuse
• Prenatal development
• Parenting styles
• Aspects of the aging process

Do a Critique of Publications Involving Psychology Research Topics

One option is to consider writing a critique paper of a published psychology book or academic journal article. For example, you might write a critical analysis of Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams or you might evaluate a more recent book such as Philip Zimbardo's  The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil .

Professional and academic journals are also great places to find materials for a critique paper. Browse through the collection at your university library to find titles devoted to the subject that you are most interested in, then look through recent articles until you find one that grabs your attention.

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Famous Experiments

There have been many fascinating and groundbreaking experiments throughout the history of psychology, providing ample material for students looking for an interesting term paper topic. In your paper, you might choose to summarize the experiment, analyze the ethics of the research, or evaluate the implications of the study. Possible experiments that you might consider include:

• The Milgram Obedience Experiment
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
• The Little Albert Experiment
• Pavlov's Conditioning Experiments
• The Asch Conformity Experiment
• Harlow's Rhesus Monkey Experiments

Topics of Psychology Research About Historical Figures

One of the simplest ways to find a great topic is to choose an interesting person in the  history of psychology  and write a paper about them. Your paper might focus on many different elements of the individual's life, such as their biography, professional history, theories, or influence on psychology.

While this type of paper may be historical in nature, there is no need for this assignment to be dry or boring. Psychology is full of fascinating figures rife with intriguing stories and anecdotes. Consider such famous individuals as Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Harry Harlow, or one of the many other  eminent psychologists .

Psychology Research Topics About a Specific Career

​Another possible topic, depending on the course in which you are enrolled, is to write about specific career paths within the  field of psychology . This type of paper is especially appropriate if you are exploring different subtopics or considering which area interests you the most.

In your paper, you might opt to explore the typical duties of a psychologist, how much people working in these fields typically earn, and the different employment options that are available.

Topics of Psychology Research Involving Case Studies

One potentially interesting idea is to write a  psychology case study  of a particular individual or group of people. In this type of paper, you will provide an in-depth analysis of your subject, including a thorough biography.

Generally, you will also assess the person, often using a major psychological theory such as  Piaget's stages of cognitive development  or  Erikson's eight-stage theory of human development . It is also important to note that your paper doesn't necessarily have to be about someone you know personally.

In fact, many professors encourage students to write case studies on historical figures or fictional characters from books, television programs, or films.

Psychology Research Topics Involving Literature Reviews

Another possibility that would work well for a number of psychology courses is to do a literature review of a specific topic within psychology. A literature review involves finding a variety of sources on a particular subject, then summarizing and reporting on what these sources have to say about the topic.

Literature reviews are generally found in the  introduction  of journal articles and other  psychology papers , but this type of analysis also works well for a full-scale psychology term paper.

Topics of Psychology Research Based on Your Own Study or Experiment

Many psychology courses require students to design an actual psychological study or perform some type of experiment. In some cases, students simply devise the study and then imagine the possible results that might occur. In other situations, you may actually have the opportunity to collect data, analyze your findings, and write up your results.

Finding a topic for your study can be difficult, but there are plenty of great ways to come up with intriguing ideas. Start by considering your own interests as well as subjects you have studied in the past.

Online sources, newspaper articles, books , journal articles, and even your own class textbook are all great places to start searching for topics for your experiments and psychology term papers. Before you begin, learn more about  how to conduct a psychology experiment .

What This Means For You

After looking at this brief list of possible topics for psychology papers, it is easy to see that psychology is a very broad and diverse subject. While this variety makes it possible to find a topic that really catches your interest, it can sometimes make it very difficult for some students to select a good topic.

If you are still stumped by your assignment, ask your instructor for suggestions and consider a few from this list for inspiration.

• Hockenbury, SE & Nolan, SA. Psychology. New York: Worth Publishers; 2014.
• Santrock, JW. A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New York: McGraw-Hill Education; 2016.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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Two nights of broken sleep can make people feel years older, finds study

Beyond simply feeling decrepit, perception of being older can affect health by encouraging unhealthy eating and reducing exercise

Two nights of broken sleep are enough to make people feel years older, according to researchers, who said consistent, restful slumber was a key factor in helping to stave off feeling one’s true age.

Psychologists in Sweden found that, on average, volunteers felt more than four years older when they were restricted to only four hours of sleep for two consecutive nights, with some claiming the sleepiness made them feel decades older.

The opposite was seen when people were allowed to stay in bed for nine hours, though the effect was more modest, with participants in the study claiming to feel on average three months younger than their real age after ample rest.

“Sleep has a major impact on how old you feel and it’s not only your long-term sleep patterns,” said Dr Leonie Balter, a psychoneuroimmunologist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and first author on the study. “Even when you only sleep less for two nights that has a real impact on how you feel.”

Beyond simply feeling more decrepit, the perception of being many years older may affect people’s health, Balter said, by encouraging unhealthy eating, reducing physical exercise, and making people less willing to socialise and engage in new experiences.

The researchers ran two studies. In the first, 429 people aged 18 to 70 answered questions about how old they felt and on how many nights, if any, they had slept badly in the past month. Their sleepiness was also rated according to a standard scale used in psychology research.

For each day of poor sleep the volunteers felt on average three months older, the scientists found, while those who reported no bad nights in the preceding month felt on average nearly six years younger than their true age. It was unclear, however, whether bad sleep made people feel older or vice versa.

In the second study, the researchers quizzed 186 volunteers aged 18 to 46 on how old they felt after two nights of plentiful sleep, in which they stayed in bed for nine hours each night, and two nights when they slept for only four hours a night. After two nights of restricted sleep, the participants felt on average 4.44 years older than when they had ample sleep. Feeling older was linked, unsurprisingly, to feeling sleepier.

“If you want to feel young, the most important thing is to protect your sleep,” Balter said.

Writing in Proceedings of the Royal Society B , the psychologists describe differences in people’s responses to sleep loss depending on whether they were a morning person, who woke and went to bed early, or an evening person who rose late and retired late. Evening types typically felt older than their true age even after plenty of sleep, but morning types were hit harder in how old they felt when their sleep was disrupted.

Balter says the findings, if confirmed, could be put to good use. “It’s important to realise how malleable subjective age is,” she said. “If we can make people feel younger, they may be able to have the associated benefits, such as being more willing to take on new experiences and being socially active and physically active.”

Dr Serena Sabatini, a psychologist at the University of Surrey, who was not involved in the study, called the results “promising”, but said investigating whether they held up in older people should be a priority for future research.

“Another important thing to consider in future research is an exploration of these mechanisms over time,” she added. “This study tells us that a bad night of sleep can impact how we feel the day after, but what are the cumulative effects of bad sleep for months and years?”

Dr Iuliana Hartescu, a senior lecturer in psychology at Loughborough University, who was also not involved in the study, said insufficient or poor sleep quality was important for lifestyle behaviours that ultimately affect long-term health.

“Sleep is one modifiable behaviour which has an immediate, noticeable effect on health,” she said. “The effects of poor diet and low physical activity take some time to notice. The effect of a poor night of sleep is immediate and influences all the other 24-hour lifestyle behaviours.”

In separate work, a 10-year study of more than 4,000 Europeans found those who consistently exercised two to three times a week were significantly less likely to suffer from insomnia than inactive people, and better able to clock up the recommended six to nine hours of sleep each night.

The international team of researchers analysed questionnaires from people enrolled in the European community respiratory health survey on their exercise habits, how well and how long they slept, and how sleepy they felt in the day. Volunteers at 21 sites in nine countries were followed for a decade.

Those who exercised two or more times a week, for at least an hour a week, were 42% less likely to have problems falling asleep than inactive people, the study found, and 55% more likely to be “normal sleepers” who got a healthy amount of shut-eye each night.

“This study has a long follow-up period, 10 years, and indicates strongly that consistency in physical activity might be an important factor in optimising sleep duration and reducing the symptoms of insomnia,” the authors write in BMJ Open .

Most viewed

Is sleeping on your stomach or back better? Here are some bedtime myths, debunked

You may have heard of the perils of sleeping on your back or your stomach. But, for most people, attempting to change how you sleep can do more harm than good.

How did you sleep last night? If you’re like most people, you assumed your favorite position at bedtime. But once sleep sets in, you likely moved again and again, shifting into multiple positions as you slept.

If you wonder whether there’s an ideal way to sleep, you’re not alone: There’s plenty of conflicting advice and dubious online information linking sleep positions to various benefits or problems, and the market is flooded with devices that promise to keep you from sleeping on your back, the scapegoat of most sleep position science.

But it turns out we have way less control over how we sleep than we might think—and we might be better off not trying.

( These are the mysteries that science is unlocking about sleep .)

“Sometimes there’s more harm than good in trying to control your position,” says Raman Malhotra, past president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and a professor of neurology at the Washington University School of Medicine.

Here’s what we do know about sleep positions—and what sleep scientists say is worth focusing on for a good night’s sleep.

Debunking early sleep theories

Are you a Flamingo, a Dutch Wife, or a Royal? The question isn’t part of a party game, though it might sound like it. Those colorful monikers are used to describe the seemingly limitless ways in which our bodies arrange themselves while sleeping.

They’re just a selection of the terms coined by psychologist Samuel Dunkell, who penned a popular psychology book in 1977 calling sleep positions “the night language of the body.” For Dunkell, sleep positions gave clues about an individual’s personality traits and psychology—their bodily position during their most vulnerable hours offering hints of how they move through the waking world.

This analysis prompted a young Joseph De Koninck, a psychologist in Canada, to wonder how people really sleep at night. He created a stop-motion method for photographing sleep positions throughout the night without waking a patient. This system, based on the Super-8 camera, unleashed a torrent of research on how people sleep.

( Here are seven science-backed tips for better sleep .)

But the psychologist, now an emeritus professor at the University of Ottawa, soon concluded that a person’s position during sleep has nothing to do with their personality, preference, or even sleep stage. Moreover, he says, “The position you take during sleep onset is not necessarily the one you use through the night.”

So what does science tell us about our sleeping positions? De Koninck’s research has showed that the number of times people change position during sleep goes down with age and that older adults strongly prefer sleeping on their right side—a position that could help regulate blood pressure. Meanwhile, other studies show that people tend to spend over half of their sleep time on their sides, with older and obese patients moving less than their younger counterparts.

When sleep gets uncomfortable

After dozens of studies on the topic, De Koninck is now convinced that sleeping position is more a reflection of anatomy and physiology than a person’s psychology—and that once you go to sleep, your body’s in charge of its position.

Malhotra agrees. “There are definitely positions that are more comfortable for certain patients,” he says—for example, an injury in your left leg or shoulder might prompt you to sleep mostly on your right side. But he notes that once a person is sleeping, it can be a long, frustrating road to train people to avoid certain positions during their sleep.

“Controlling someone's positions at nighttime is very difficult,” he says. The majority of patients who need to change their sleep position are back sleepers experiencing sleep apnea, in which the airway collapses or does not function properly, causing a person to stop breathing multiple times per night.

( This is the toll that sleep apnea takes on the body .)

Some people turn to fancy sleep training devices to keep them off their backs. Though only a few are FDA-approved, these devices buzz, inflate, and poke patients into different sleep positions. Meanwhile others simply tape a tennis ball to their back to make back sleeping uncomfortable, an old-school method that has actually been shown to work as well as special sleep training devices.

Still, training someone to adopt a different default sleep position can take months—and setbacks are common. Studies show that patients tend to abandon both tennis balls and other devices because of the discomfort they cause.

“Some of the devices we recommend are disruptive to patients’ sleep, Malhotra says. And those months of sleepless nights are themselves associated with all sorts of health issues, from obesity and stroke to accidents and depression.

The future of sleep research

Sleep scientists continue to improve the tech behind sleep studies, using accelerometers and other technology to determine sleep position. But the benefits of certain sleep positions are still unclear—and it’s proven difficult to put the information we do have about sleep positions to use.

For example, studies on sleeping rodents suggest side sleeping is associated with better cognition and a lower risk of dementia, perhaps because it helps clear brain waste. But animal studies don’t always translate in human subjects, and even if you managed to train your body to sleep on the side, it’s unclear whether it would benefit your brain health long-term.

Instead of worrying about something that’s so hard to control, Malhotra says it’s worth asking yourself how you feel when you wake up. “Our best measure of sleep quality is still what someone feels like in the morning,” he says. Overall, the science suggests that if you’re well-rested and don’t have sleep apnea or pain, you don’t need to worry about sleep positions. So next time you go to sleep, close your eyes, relax, and let nature take its course.

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Disparities in sleep health and insomnia may begin at a young age

Black children were 2.6 times more likely to experience insomnia that begins in childhood and persists through young adulthood compared to white children.

Most people have experienced a night or two of sleeplessness, tossing and turning while being unable to fall asleep or stay asleep. But for some people, sleep disturbances aren't just a one-off occurrence, and they can begin in childhood.

A team, led by Penn State researchers, found that children and teens from racial and ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by persistent insomnia symptoms that begin in childhood and continue through young adulthood. Specifically, Black children were 2.6 times more likely to experience these long-term sleep problems compared to white children. The findings underscore the need to identify insomnia symptoms early and intervene with age-appropriate treatment.

"Insomnia is a public health problem," said Julio Fernandez-Mendoza, professor at Penn State College of Medicine and senior author of the study recently published in the journal SLEEP. "We've identified that more people than we thought have childhood-onset insomnia where symptoms start in childhood and remain chronic all the way through young adulthood."

Poor sleep is linked to cardiometabolic disease, depression and anxiety, among other concerns. Yet, when it comes to sleep and children, insomnia symptoms aren't always taken seriously. Fernandez-Mendoza said that most people assume that difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep is a phase that kids will outgrow.

"Insomnia isn't like childhood sleep terrors or sleepwalking. It won't go away with puberty and maturation for many children," Fernandez-Mendoza said. Childhood-onset insomnia confers a greater risk for health problems because of the chronic exposure to sleeplessness, he explained. Those risks may be higher for Black and Hispanic/Latino children compared to non-Hispanic white children because disparities in sleep patterns begin at a young age.

The researchers followed 519 participants from the Penn State Child Cohort, a random, population-based study established in 2000. Participants were first recruited as school-age children, between the ages of 5 and 12, and were followed as adolescents and young adults, with assessments at the mean ages of 9, 16 and 24, respectively. Each time point represents a different maturational and development stage. At each stage, participants -- or their parents during childhood -- reported on difficulty falling or staying asleep and underwent an in-lab sleep study like the one used to diagnose sleep apnea or other sleep disorders. This longitudinal data was then used to determine what happens to sleep during this specific lifespan period. The researchers wanted to know: Does insomnia that starts in childhood resolve with age or does it persist?

The study is one of the first to look at how childhood insomnia symptoms evolve over the long-term and investigate how the trajectory of insomnia differs between racial and ethnic groups, addressing a gap in the research literature, Fernandez-Mendoza said. The researchers found that 23.3% of participants had persistent insomnia symptoms, with symptoms present at all three time points, and 16.8% developed insomnia symptoms in young adulthood. When broken down by race and ethnicity, Black participants made up the biggest share of those with persistent insomnia symptoms, followed by Hispanic/Latino youth.

In particular, compared to non-Hispanic white participants, Black participants were 2.6 times more likely to have insomnia symptoms that persisted through young adulthood. What's more, Black participants had higher odds -- 3.44 times higher -- that their insomnia symptoms would persist rather than resolve after childhood compared to their non-Hispanic white counterparts. What this means is that among Black children whose symptoms continued beyond the transition from childhood to adolescence, their symptoms are less likely to resolve in the transition to adulthood. Hispanic/Latino participants were 1.8 times more likely to have persistent insomnia symptoms compared to white participants.

"We shouldn't wait until someone comes to the clinic as an adult who has suffered from poor sleep all their life. We need to pay more attention to insomnia symptoms in children and adolescents," Fernandez-Mendoza said.

Other Penn State authors on the paper include: Edward Bixler, professor emeritus; Alexandros Vgontzas, professor; Kristina Lenker, assistant professor; Susan Calhoun, associate professor; and Raegan Atha, sleep medicine specialist, all members of the department of psychiatry and behavioral health, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine. Jiangang Liao, Fan He and Duanping Liao are all faculty of the department of public health sciences at Penn State College of Medicine. Other authors are Rupsha Singh, postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute on Aging, and Chandra Jackson, senior investigator, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The work was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the NIH, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institute on Aging, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and the Intramural Programs at the NIH.

• Sleep Disorder Research
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• Sleep disorder
• Lead poisoning

Story Source:

Materials provided by Penn State . Original written by Christine Yu. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Rupsha Singh, Raegan Atha, Kristina P Lenker, Susan L Calhoun, Jiangang Liao, Fan He, Alexandros N Vgontzas, Duanping Liao, Edward O Bixler, Chandra L Jackson, Julio Fernandez-Mendoza. Racial/ethnic disparities in the trajectories of insomnia symptoms from childhood to young adulthood . SLEEP , 2024; DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsae021

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• Bipolar Disorder

Sleep and Bipolar Disorder: A Rocky Relationship

Personal perspective: proper sleep is essential for mood stability..

Posted April 2, 2024 | Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer

• What Is Bipolar Disorder?
• Find a therapist to treat bipolar disorder
• Sleep disturbance is a defining feature of bipolar disorder.
• Mania is characterized by a decreased need for sleep, while depression often causes prolonged sleeping.
• A healthy sleep cycle is necessary for bipolar recovery, and should be treated as a priority.

I was on the brink of snapping at my boyfriend this morning, because his mattress app scolded me that I’d overslept. This opinionated mattress is one of those fancy jobs that hooks up via Bluetooth to your phone and measures all sorts of things you didn’t even know you had, like HRV (heart rate variability). I’d been in bed for a little over 9 hours, and the app took it upon itself to warn me that, “Too much sleep can be a bad thing, so try not to make it a habit.”

I showed the text to my boyfriend, thinking we would share a laugh about it. Instead, he said, “Sweetie, sleep is that company’s whole business. They must know what they’re talking about.”

He obviously forgot that I’m bipolar. And that I’ve written three books about the subject. And that if there’s one thing I feel like I’m a semi-expert on by virtue of my illness, it’s the subject of sleep.

Sleep disturbance is considered a defining feature of bipolar disorder in all its phases (Harvey, A., American Journal of Psychiatry . 2008 July; 165(7):820-9). A severely decreased need for sleep is one of the most common symptoms of mania , while depression is often characterized by hypersomnia ( sleeping for very long periods). It’s possible that sleep issues are so common among bipolar individuals because of a biological vulnerability—i.e., a genetic abnormality in their circadian rhythm system (Wehr, et al., American Journal of Psychiatry . 1987; 144:201–204).

I didn’t always understand this the way I do now. For most of my life, I just thought I didn’t know how to sleep like a normal person. Was it something they taught you in nursery school that I had somehow missed? I remember looking around at all the other kids during nap times, wondering how they managed to drift off into dreamland upon the teacher’s command, while I was still tossing and turning and fretting about being awake.

Sleep either evaded me completely or drowned me into unconsciousness, depending on what mood state I was in at the time. In periods of hypomania , I would feel a heightened sense of wakefulness—an acute alertness to sounds and stimuli I usually overlooked. I was like a dog let loose for a romp, and the world was one big joyous wonderland of sensory input known only to me.

But once that hypomania escalated into full-blown mania, the input overwhelmed me. There was no escaping it—too much light, too much noise, too much tactile information; I couldn’t tune it out for a millisecond. If I tried to close my eyes against the searing brightness, they’d only flutter open again. It was pointless even to try to sleep, so I’d spend days whirling around in a manic spin, my body exhausted but my mind cruelly, savagely awake.

One would think the inevitable ensuing depression would come as a relief, but it didn’t. Depression is never welcome, no matter how much one longs for mania to end. True, my world would slow way down then, but the slowness came at an unbearable price: an intense paralysis of thought and action. The lethargy seeped into my very bones until it became nearly impossible for me to do anything but lie motionless in my bed. Sleep became my only escape, and I’d spend days, even weeks, trapped under my covers, haunted by the memory of movement.

Thank God, those too-awake days and nightmare-soaked nights are mostly behind me now. Medication , therapy , mindfulness , and years of education have rewarded me with mood stability. But even though I’m now what’s called “euthymic”—meaning my bipolar symptoms are in remission—sleep remains an absolute priority in my life. I know that it’s one of the linchpins of my recovery, and that I could easily backslide if I don’t care for it the way I would care for a treasured possession.

That’s why I guard it so fiercely. As I emphatically told my poor boyfriend this morning, nobody and nothing—and certainly not a mattress app!—gets between me and a good night’s sleep. The truth is, bipolar disorder often makes me feel like my mind is not my own. Sleep is one of those rare things that gives me a modicum of control. It would be foolhardy not to treat it like the precious resource it is.

Terri Cheney is the author of Manic: A Memoir and The Dark Side of Innocence: Growing Up Bipolar .

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127 Sleep Essay Topics and Essay Examples

🏆 best sleep topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good sleep topics to write about, 💡 interesting sleep topics, ❓ research questions about sleep.

• Problem of Sleep Deprivation This is due to disruption of the sleep cycle. Based on the negative effects of sleep deprivation, there is need to manage this disorder among Americans.
• Sleep Habits and Its Impact on Human Mind Activity The researchers paid attention to the quality of sleep and mentioned such characteristics as the time of going to bed and waking up, the duration, and quality of sleep. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
• Effects of Sleeping Disorders on Human On the other hand, Dyssomnia relates to sleep disorders that develop as a result of lack of adequate sleep. In some cases, antidepressants have been used to cure sleep disorders that are as a result […]
• Cross-Cultural Sleeping Arrangements in Children The aim of this paper is to study the different sleep patterns such as solitary or co sleeping in the United States of America and different cultures around the world.
• The Influence of Sleep Deprivation on Human Body It contradicts living in harmony with God, as when the person is irritated and moody, it is more difficult to be virtuous and to be a source of joy for others.
• How Sleep Deprivation Affects College Students’ Academic Performance The study seeks to confirm the position of the hypothesis that sleep deprivation leads to poor academic performance in college students.
• Psychology of Sleep: Article Study The field of sleep and sleep disorders has been an integral part of psychological investigations: a number of scientists find it necessary to contribute sleep education and offer the ideas which help people improve their […]
• Insomnia: A Sleeping Disorder Type Causes of insomnia can be classified into two; factors contributing to acute insomnia and chronic insomnia. Chronic insomnia can be as a result of emotional stress.
• Sleep and Its Implication on Animals This paper is set to synthesize the evolution sleep in animals, its benefits and the recent knowledge that is linked to this natural phenomenon of near unconsciousness.”A Third of Life” addressed what is sleep and […]
• Blue Light Effect on Human Sleep The introduction is comprised of a thesis statement and a description of the critical thoughts of the paper. At the end of the paper, recommendations on how to reduce the adversarial effect of the blue […]
• The Importance of Sleeping and Dreaming Finally, I would not take this pill since I love seeing dreams and realize that this “miracle medicine” will cause too many negative consequences.
• Effects of Sleep Deprivation While scientists are at a loss explaining the varying sleeping habits of different animals, they do concede that sleep is crucial and a sleeping disorder may be detrimental to the health and productivity of a […]
• The Effect of Sleep Quality and IQ on Memory Therefore, the major aim of sleep is to balance the energies in the body. However, the nature of the activity that an individual is exposed to determines the rate of memory capture.
• How the Modern Life Has Affected Sleep Czeisler mentioned in the DW documentary about sleep: “The electric light to which we are exposed in terms of resetting our internal clock is like light on steroids”. That is why we should affect the […]
• Sleep May Be Nature’s Time Management Tool by Carey The author states that no one knows why sleep exists therefore setting the context for the article in which she advances the numerous theories that are advanced as to the role that sleep plays.
• Emotions Clusters and Sleep Failure Earlier critics had argued that PANAS was not suitable for children, and this led to the development of specific PANAS-C for children.
• Sleep and Sensory Reactivity in the School-Aged Children The interaction of these elements should be considered in therapies expressly designed to improve sleep disruptions or sensory processing difficulties in children as a possible negative determinant that may adversely affect children’s health and normal […]
• Stages of Sleep, Brain Waves, and the Neural Mechanisms of Sleep As sleep is extremely important for a person’s well-being, I believe it is essential to pay attention to the mechanisms of sleep and how they work.
• The Issue of Chronic Sleep Deprivation The quality of sleep significantly impacts the health and performance of the human body. These findings point to significant promise for the use of exercise in the treatment of sleep disorders, but a broader body […]
• Sleep-Wake, Eating, and Personality Disorders Treatment On the other hand, treatment with prazosin and mianserin was effective; for example, the drug mianserin benefits patients suffering from sleep disorders. Psychotherapy approaches like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia and Imaginary Rehearsal Therapy are […]
• Sleep and Meditation Can Predict an Individual’s Satisfaction With Life This aim of this study is to investigate the effects of quality sleep and mindfulness on life satisfaction. In a nutshell, life satisfaction depends on the quality of sleep and meditation.
• Water Consumption and Sleep Hygiene Practices First, I will discuss that safe and sufficient water facilitates the practice of hygiene and well-being and is a critical determining factor for health.
• Depression Associated With Sleep Disorders Y, Chang, C. Consequently, it directly affects the manifestation of obstructive sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and periodic limb movement disorder in people with depression.
• How Technology Affects Sleep in Adolescents The critique will focus on the various sections of the article, where the strengths and weaknesses of each are outlined and discussed. The title of the article excellently reflects the essence of the research.
• Sleep Disturbance in Children Any disorder that alters the craniofacial or pharyngeal anatomy predisposes the child to obstructive narcolepsy is considered a medical problem associated with sleep disturbances in children. Central Sleep Apnea is the repeated cessation or decrease […]
• ADHD and Problems With Sleep This is because of the activity of a person in the middle of the day and the condition around them. The downside of the study is that the study group included 52 adults with ADHD […]
• Solving the Sleep Problem through TQM Principles The initiative to address the lack of sleep among employees and consequently improve their performance and the quality of services requires teamwork optimization.
• Effects of Lullaby Music on Quality of Sleep in Adults With Insomnia Insomnia consists of deprivation of the duration and quality of sleep, which affects the psychological and physical condition of people. In addition, the main limitation may be the unreliability of the information provided by the […]
• Eat, Sleep, and Console: Narcotic Abstinence Syndrome in Infants The choice of the quantitative design is justified by the necessity to prove the superiority of the proposed solution to the one that is currently deployed as the alternative way of managing the needs of […]
• Hippocampus-Dependent Memories During Sleep The smell was chosen because it was not necessary to interrupt the integrity of the subjects’ sleep to introduce it into the experiment.
• Programs in Family Sleep Institute She explained to me the sleep cycle of the child and the adult, how many hours my child is supposed to sleep, the bedtime routine, and the method that we had to adopt during the […]
• Sleeping Habits & Physical Health: Students’ Perception Using the survey as the data collection tool, the investigators state that most students do not have appropriate sleep habits, although they agree that their academic success and physical health suffer because of the lack […]
• Sleep Deprivation and Insomnia: Study Sources The topic of this audio record is a variety of problems with sleep and their impact on an organism. They proved the aforementioned conclusion and also paid attention to the impact of sleep deprivation on […]
• Sleep Problems Among Student-Athletes Despite the importance of the topic under study and the conclusions reached, the work raised additional questions and had some limitations.
• Excessive Sleepiness May Be Cause of Learning, Attention, and School Problems The information in the article “Excessive Sleepiness May Be Cause of Learning, Attention, and School Problems” by Calhoun and Fernandez-Mendoza is used to show that heavy daytime sleeping may be a cause of attention, learning, […]
• Sleep Hygiene Intervention Plan for Young Adults The main goals of this plan are to develop a list of guidelines for nurses on how they can offer a kind of educational program to their patients based on which young adults can understand […]
• Neurocognitive Consequences of Sleep Deprivation The CNS consists of the brain and the spinal cord while the PNS consists of all the endings of the nerve extensions in all organs forming the web that extends throughout the entire organ.
• Sleep Apnea, the Heart and the Brain in the Elderly They should get the necessary treatment of heart diseases and neuromuscular disorders Be attentive to yourself and live a full life!
• Sleepiness Level and Degree: Research Instruments A sum ranging from 0 to 24 of the score on the eight items makes the total score of the ESS.
• Evolutionary Biology: Sleep Patterns in Mammals This synthesis addresses the question of the origin of sleep in mammals and traces this phenomenon by studying the evolution of the mammalian brain and suggesting possible external factors that affect sleep patterns.
• “Childbirth Fear and Sleep Deprivation in Pregnant Women” by Hall To further show that the information used is current, the authors have used the APA style of referencing which demand the naming of the author as well as the year of publication of the article/book […]
• African Sleeping Sickness Using the various forms of detection and diagnosis it was discovered that African sleeping sickness is a major problem in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• The Use of Sleephormone in Children With Neuro-Developmental Disorders For the better management of the data that are planned to be retrieved from the clinical trial procedures, the following list of the definitions and acronyms used in the trial process is given.
• Sleep Deprivation and Learning at University It is a widely known fact that numerous people face the problem of lack of sleep. Second, sleeping is essential for increasing the productivity of students in the context of learning.
• Communication Between Sleep, Behavior and Obesity The purpose of the study seeks to evaluate the association between nighttime media use with sleep behaviors and variation in weight status for first-semester college students.
• Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Heart Diseases In children with Down syndrome, incidence rates of hypertension and sleepiness are high, and the problem is compounded in the presence of OSA.
• Sleep is a Vital Stage of a Day Cycle in Humans During the first stage of sleep, the EEG shifts to theta waves, with a frequency of 4 7 Hz. There are numerous sleep disorders, which can affect the well-being of a person.
• “The Effect of Nursing Quality Improvement and Mobile Health Interventions on Infant Sleep Practices” by Moon The following analysis is related to the article, “The effect of nursing quality improvement and mobile health interventions on infant sleep practices” by Moon et al.
• Sleep Deprivation: Biopsychology and Health Psychology Another theory that has been proposed in relation to sleep is the Circadian theory which suggests that sleep evolved as a mechanism to fit organisms into the light dark cycle of the world.
• Study of the Sleeping Process The paper entails a comprehensive analysis of the sleeping process in addition to evaluating the factors that affect the sleeping process.
• Sleep Disorders: Sleep Deprivation of the Public Safety Officers The effects of sleep disorders and fatigue on public safety officers is a social issue that needs to be addressed with more vigor and urgency so that the key issues and factors that are salient […]
• Sleep, Satisfaction With Life and Cognitive Function Sleep is the state of the mind involving temporary loss of consciousness leading to the resting of the mind. Sleep is one of the most important requirements in individuals so as to ensure the well-being […]
• Sleep Versus Social Demands in Students The effects of has been exhibited more greatly in animals through studies and all animals have been shown to sleep in different forms.
• Sleep Deprivation: Personal Experiment As I had been perplexed, I did not take a step of reporting the matter to the police neither did I inform my neighbors.
• Sleep Patterns and Memory Performance of Children The article presents the essence, the methods and the results of the experiment which had to show the influence of TV and computer games on German children’s sleep.
• Recuperative Versus Circadian Theory of Sleep The Recuperative theory of sleep is based on the premise that humans require sleep to rejuvenate and recoup spent energy during the waking period.
• Biology. Adolescent Sleep Pattern The habit of sleep is very individual specific therefore a study of the pattern of sleep of a group needs to be evaluated to get an understating of the pattern of sleep.
• Non- and Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Non REM sleep represents 75% of sleep duration and occurs in four stages and REM sleep represents stage 5 of sleep.
• Main Information about Sleeping Disorders In the introduction part the paper provides an overview of sleep and sleep disorders. This led to the conclusion that instead of being a quite and peaceful period of rest and resuscitation as everyone would […]
• Memory Consolidation and Reconsolidation After Sleep The memory consolidation of the visual skill tasks is related to the REM sleep and the short wave component of the NREM.
• Sleep Disorders: Narcolepsy, Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Insomnia An important aspect of the pathogenesis is the autoimmune lesion of the orexin neurons of the hypothalamus, which leads to a decrease in the level of hypocretin-1.
• Sleeping Sickness Transmission and Control Measures Most of the cases of sleeping sickness are usually recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, northern parts of Uganda, Sudan, Angola, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Malawi.
• Electronic Devices Use and Sleep in US Adolescents During the process of data collection, the authors discovered that most of the participants tended to go to bed very late, which affected the quality of their sleep and their ability to normally function over […]
• The Role of Sleep in Humans’ Well-Being Each of the speakers in the videos focuses on a different characteristic of sleep, but all of them agree that without enough sleep, one does not perform to the fullest potential.
• Sleep Helps to Repair Damaged DNA in Neurons The researchers found that the chromosomes in the fish’s neurons would often change shape while their owners slept, enabling the repair of the damage accumulated in periods of activity.
• Co-Sleeping Impact on Child Development At the same time, it is crucial to pay attention to the phases of sleep and the cycles of awakening. It will help to facilitate the process of sleep in the future and eliminate any […]
• Adolescent Sleep and the Impact of Technology Use Particularly, the authors of the study explain why there is the need to know the answer to the question by providing a profound background to the case and stating that innovative technology has a profound […]
• Sleeping Patterns Within Infants Infant A is put to sleep in the bassinet, and the parents use the sleeping bag in order to make the infant’s sleep more comfortable.
• Sleep Deprivation: Research Methods The purpose of the research will be to determine sleep deprivation, what causes it, the effect, and why sleep is important.
• Coffee Effects on Sleeping Patterns: Experiment Consumption of coffee before going to bed will cause individuals to have difficulty falling asleep The amount of coffee the subjects drink before going to bed The time after going to bed that subjects fall […]
• Sleep Disruptions in Healthcare Professionals First of all, the sleep disruption may lead to a lack of coordination in the team because some members would be fatigued during the working hours, which would interfere with their functioning and concentration in […]
• Physical Activity and Sleep Health in Adults In the introduction to the analysed study, a substantial scientific background for the problem of improving physical activity and sleep in adults is presented.
• Sleep-Disordered Breathing and Acute Ischemic Stroke In this case study, the investigator focused on ischemic stroke, one of the most common types of stroke in the world.
• Insomnia and Narcolepsy: Sleeping Disorders Besides, it was established that people with insomnia are inclined to overestimate the negative effect of sleeping disorder and underestimate the total time of sleep.
• Sleep Patterns’ Impact on Academic Performance Because some university classes begin as early as 7 o’clock in the morning and finish in the evening, the only option for such students is to reduce the length of night-time sleep in order to […]
• Prevalence of Sleep Disorders among Medical Students Nightmares and dreams arise in the course of REM sleep as it is linked to desynchronized and quick brain waves, deferral of homeostasis, and failure of muscular tonus.
• Sleep Deprivation and Specific Emotions The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the relationship between sleep deprivation and emotional behaviors. The study looks to create a link between the findings of past researches on the emotional […]
• Sleep Disturbance, Depression, Anxiety Correlation The above imply that many questions are still unanswered with respect to the kinds of sleep complaints affecting undergraduates and the impact on their psychological health.
• Relationship Between Depression and Sleep Disturbance It was emphasized that persistent disturbance, its severity, and the intermittent nature of the sleep were not associated with depression and its recurrence in the following years. The sleeping disturbance is a risk factor that […]
• Sleep and Psychopathology Relationships – Psychology Generally, available evidence shows that feelings of negative emotions such as anxiety are characterized by the dysfunction in cognitive and interpersonal spheres.
• Sleep Disorder Consequences on the Immune System Consequently, the research question for this paper is: what are the consequences of sleep disorder on the immune system? The primary goal of the study is to determine the effects of sleep disorder on the […]
• Importance of Sleep – Psychology Precisely, most of the organs of the body are at rest during sleep. It is during sleep that the body encodes the information it obtains during the day into the memory.
• Dream and Sleep Cycle Dreams occur in any of the phases of sleep, nonetheless, the most concise, clear, vivid and memorable dreams are observed in the last phase of sleep (known as the rapid eye movement REM sleep.
• Changes of Sleep in the Course of One Night Furthermore, voltage generated by eye rotation in their sockets and electrical activities of the muscles all help in the study of the cycles of sleep in the course of one night.
• Sleep Deprivation Impacts on College Students Additional research in this field should involve the use of diverse categories of students to determine the effects that sleep deprivation would have on them.
• Relationship Between Sleep and Depression in Adolescence Using SPSS for data analysis, the results indicate the presence of a correlation between elements of depression and sleep duration and quality.
• Ethical Issues in Treating Obstructive Sleep Apnea with Exercise Independently The approaches should ensure that necessary preventive and curative measures are put in place to facilitate the process of eradicating the disease that is causing immense sleep related complications.
• The Eight Hour Dilemma: Sleeping Time Reduction. When a Single Hour Makes a Difference While reducing the amount of sleeping hours to seven and less can possibly lead to sleep deprivation and the further changes for the worse in a human body, eight hours are no longer the borderline […]
• Infant Sleep Disturbance (ISD) The uniqueness of this study stems from the fact that it would provide a clear understanding of the most effective intervention/basis for physicians and parents to pursue in the management of sleep disorders among infants […]
• Underlying Issues Associated with Sleep Disorders and Stress Of fundamental importance to this research paper is the realization that the amount of sleep that an individual gets is one of the internal factors that influence his or her own capacity to handle stress.
• The Consequences of Poor Sleep Conducting a research devoted to human sleep habits in children and feeling the affect on their confidence as adults, the existing data should be evaluated and the conclusions are to be drawn in the sphere […]
• The Role of Melatonin in Determining the Sleep-Wake Cycle Melatonin plays a significant role in the circadian control of sleep as well as in restraining the development of malignant cells.
• The Phantom Menace of Sleep-Deprived Doctors This is one of the problems that should be addressed by hospital administrators. Therefore, it is vital to develop strategies that can improve the work of medical institutions.
• The Biological Basis of Sleep The authors suggest that it needs more accurate measurement of sleep and wake pattern by the use of the electrooculogram, the recording of the movement of the eye, EEG and electromyogram, the recording of the […]
• Sleep and Dreams: How Do They Work? During sleep, the brain is at rest while the rest of the body system is in active state. Thus, to prevent most of the body disorders in human both psychiatrists and health experts recommend sleep.
• Sleep Disorders with Children and Adolescences This study is important in terms of understanding of the effectives of empirical and theoretical research in the field and attracting the scientist’s attention to the problem so that appropriate and effective treatment to be […]
• Sleepwalking Through Life In this case, there is a large context of life that people can be part of which should be understood. All in all, there is a lot that can be done to ensure that people […]
• Sleep Stages and Disorders A more elaborate look into understanding sleep take a look at the two aspects of sleep which is the behavior observed during sleeping periods as well as the scientific explanation of the physiological processes involved […]
• Sleep Process Research There are said to have five sleep stages, which are divided in to two: the rapid eye movement and the non rapid eye movement during which the dreams occur.
• A Day in the Sleep Clinic: Culture and Health The third aspect of the PEN-3 Model looks at the cultural issues and health beliefs. For instance, the Sudanese family belief in superstition may not affect the health outcome in the hands of the doctor.
• Using Depressants During Sleep Time The paper also holds up the notion that, today it is important to control the sleeping patterns, to conform to the lifestyle demands. The drugs are mainly used generally to reduce the sleep delays, thus […]
• Sleep Improves Memory It is possible to replace a traumatic memory with a pleasant one then take a brief moment of sleep to reinforce the pleasant memory.
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