After a bad night’s sleep, the most logical thing is that our mood does not go through its best moment. However, what affects us more, sleeping a few hours or waking up several times during the night? According to a new study carried out by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore (USA) , bad mood is more associated with a bad night than with a lack of sleep .
The researchers conducted an experiment with 62 healthy men and women randomly assigned to different rooms that would represent different study variables: the first group had no sleep interruption at any time of the total three nights the experiment lasted (control group ); the second group had to delay the time of rest for several hours; the third group was deliberately awakened eight times during sleep each night. The sleep phases of all participants were monitored by polysomnography, which records brain waves, blood oxygen levels, respiration, heart rate, and eye and leg movements during sleep.
The results revealed that people whose sleep was frequently interrupted during these three consecutive nights reported significantly worse mood (a 31% reduction in positive mood) than those who had slept fewer hours (who had a reduction in their good mood of only 12%), because they had gone to bed later. That is, sleep disruption was more detrimental to mood than lack of sleep.
Regarding polysomnography tests, the experts found that the group that had multiple sleep interruptions also experienced shorter periods of deep sleep (the most important phase of all) compared to the group that slept fewer hours.
Sleeping the necessary hours, between 7 and 9 for adults between 18-64 years of age and between 7 and 8 for those over 65, is necessary to help improve our immune system, our productivity and, of course, our mood. Now, in addition, we can affirm that the quality of sleep is as important as its duration and could explain why many people with chronic insomnia suffer from depression .
The study has been published in the journal Sleep.
