Anxiety and Sleep / Insomnia

Sleep spindles are more than just a strange phenomenon that happens during sleep. They play an essential role in soothing PTSD anxiety and enhancing memory retention.

Brief bursts of brain activity during sleep known as sleep spindles could potentially help regulate anxiety in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Researchers believe that the study’s findings may be useful for people with anxiety disorders and are looking at non-invasive ways to harness the benefits of this sleep stage to relieve symptoms. The study also suggests that sleep hygiene, electrical brain stimulation, or prescription sleep medications could promote the sleep spindles associated with non-rapid eye movement 2 (NREM2) sleep and potentially benefit patients with stress and anxiety disorders.

Sleep spindles are more than just a strange phenomenon that happens during sleep. They play an essential role in soothing PTSD anxiety and enhancing memory retention. Read More »

The hell of somniphobia: ‘On a bad night I get zero to two hours’ sleep’

The fear of falling asleep can have many causes, from trauma to sleep apnea, and the effects are debilitating. But there are effective treatmentsWhen Elizabeth Johnson tries to fall asleep, anxiety often takes over. After going to bed, she starts to relax, but feels as though she is losing control. “Instead of continuing,” she says, “I get a sense of panic, a shot of adrenaline and I’m fully awake again.” She is describing what it is like to have somniphobia – the fear of falling asleep. “Then I have to do the whole process of trying to sleep again, or give up for the night.”Johnson, 38, from Kansas, has had trouble sleeping and staying asleep since she was seven. It started out as insomnia and a fear of not sleeping, progressing by 12 to a fear of sleep itself. As a young child, she recalls, it was a case of, “When you get to a place where you can mentally fall asleep, you’re scared that it’s not going to happen this time. Or you’re scared that you’re going to have nightmares. And then, later, there was another layer of being afraid to fall asleep: because you’re no longer aware of what’s going on, so you’re not safe.” Continue reading…

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Restraint stress induced anxiety and sleep in mice

In humans and animals, exposure to changes in internal or external environments causes acute stress, which changes sleep and enhances neurochemical, neuroendocrine, and sympathetic activities. Repeated stress responses play an essential role in the pathogenesis of psychiatric diseases and sleep disorders. However, the underlying mechanism of sleep changes and anxiety disorders in response to acute

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Sleep Disturbances Prevalent in Long COVID, Analysis Finds

Source: Google News – Health More than two in five patients with long COVID suffer from moderate to severe sleep disturbances, according to an analysis published in Journal of General Internal Medicine. The analysis also identified risk factors for moderate to severe sleep disturbances, including race, hospitalization for COVID-19, greater anxiety severity, and fatigue. After

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The contribution of transdiagnostic vulnerability factors in patients with chronic insomnia

Two hundred patients with chronic insomnia disorder were recruited from a sleep disorder clinic. … After controlling for the confounding variables (depression/anxiety symptoms and demographic characteristics), hierarchical multiple linear regression suggested the significant association of neuroticism (BFI), cognitive reappraisal (ERQ), personal standards (CPQ), evaluative concerns (CPQ), physical concerns (ASI), cognitive concerns (ASI), and repetitive negative

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