sleep deprivation

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Sleep deprivation is the willful or unintentional deprivation of sleep .

Sleep deprivation is used in psychiatry as sleep deprivation treatment or waking therapy as a treatment method for depression . In addition, forced sleep deprivation is known as a torture method .

The world record for sleep deprivation was set in May 2007 by British Tony Wright from Penzance , who stayed awake for 266 hours (just over eleven days). In doing so, he broke the former world record set by Randy Gardner in 1964, who spent 264 hours without sleep. However, Wright was not interested in an entry in the Guinness Book of Records like the American Gardner , but wanted to show that a person can remain productive despite sleep deprivation with the right diet.

In one experiment, sleep deprivation in rats led to death within seven days in some of the rats.

In humans, sleep deprivation over a longer period of time leads to an accumulation of microsleep .

Sleep deprivation as a form of therapy

Sleep deprivation is sometimes used as a therapy for people with depression. A distinction is made between partial (partial) sleep deprivation, in which there is only no sleep in the second half of the night , from complete sleep deprivation. After sleep deprivation, in about half of the cases there is a measurable improvement in mood the following day. To maintain the effect of sleep deprivation for a few days, sleep deprivation can be followed by a shift in the sleep phase . The pioneer of clinical use in Germany was Heinroth , holder of the world's first psychiatry chair (1811), but his views were forgotten.

Waking therapy with shifting the sleep phase forward is one of the standard treatment methods in inpatient treatment of depression and is used in addition to drug and psychotherapeutic treatment. A waking therapy is often accompanied by light therapy , which also influences the circadian rhythm .

Sleep deprivation has a balancing effect on neurotransmitter imbalances in the brain (for example acetylcholine and serotonin ) and works best for depression, which varies in intensity depending on the time of day (these are often stronger in the morning after waking up, but weaker in the evening, "evening high").

Sleep deprivation as torture

Persistent lack of sleep leads to physical complaints (e.g. increased susceptibility to infection , headaches ) and psychological problems ( e.g. thought disorders , fatigue , hallucinations , irritability ). Permanent methodical sleep deprivation is therefore also used as a method of torture, among other things, to prevent the victim from thinking clearly and to break the victim's will and resistance and thus, for example, to blackmail statements .

Sleep deprivation was a common practice in the Soviet Union or the GDR , for example, when suspects were interrogated , some of whom were interrogated by different people in turns, as if on an assembly line (this torture is also described in Solzhenitsyn's Gulag archipelago ). Combined with intimidation, threats , deprivation of food and water, and agonizing postures, it was a widespread leverage.

In the prison camp operated by the USA in Guantánamo, attempts were often made to force inmates to testify by depriving them of sleep during interrogation. Different methods were used:

  • Changing the waking and sleeping times, e.g. B. Shifting the sleep time to the day
  • Reduce sleep time to 4 to 6 hours per day over a period of several weeks
  • Cell relocations every few hours, day and night for one to two weeks (called frequent flyer program )

Sleep deprivation is still often used today as a torture method - among other things because it leaves no verifiable physical traces on the victim and psychological damage as secondary damage is difficult to detect (so-called white torture ).

Sleep deprivation for military training purposes

In the military, the soldiers' rest periods are intentionally shortened or temporarily suspended during some exercises in order to expose the soldiers to (moderate) sleep deprivation. This serves less to get used to (since it is difficult to get used to sleep deprivation) than to experience the situation: the exhaustion and apathy that occur makes people unable to perform as usual, so that the soldiers can only perform their tasks through great self-discipline and group cohesion. The planned sleep deprivation is not communicated to the soldier or ordered directly, but usually results from simulated events during an exercise.

In Germany, a shorter sleep time of around 6 hours is the rule in basic training. The sleep time on watch and in the UvD service (approx. 4 hours) is not an end in itself, but results from the requirements of the watch service (one soldier sleeps, one keeps watch).

Sleep deprivation for the purpose of punishment is prohibited and will be punished as abuse of subordinates.

Physiological and psychological effects of sleep deprivation

Sleep deprivation affects various body functions and also the mental performance of those affected.

Mental skills:

  • Hallucinations
  • irritability
  • Impairment of cognitive performance
  • Memory lapse or loss of memory
  • Symptoms similar to:
    • psychosis
    • ADHD
    • Drunkenness (in the sense of limiting the higher brain functions (arithmetic, articulating), "mumbling" etc .; but also loss or limitation of the sense of balance (after sleep deprivation, the ability to overcome obstacles, for example, has similar deficits as after drinking alcohol Beverages))

Immune system:

Pancreas:

Heart:

Muscles:

Outer appearance:

Molecular changes in the human brain due to unusually long periods of wakefulness

In one study, people stayed awake for 52 hours. Sleep deprivation increases the number of available A1 adenosine receptors in the brain. Adenosine regulates the need for sleep in the brain. A1 adenosine receptors are built into the cell wall as a kind of receptor. They transmit the signal from the docking messenger substance adenosine inside the cell. This downregulates the activity of the cell and increases fatigue. The available A1 adenosine receptors normalize to their initial level again through subsequent restful sleep.

There are also large individual differences in performance in response time and memory tasks during sleep deprivation. Some people experience extreme dropouts, while others experience little performance degradation.

Consequences of sleep problems in childhood

A longitudinal study from 2015 investigated the role of early sleep patterns in predicting attention regulation and behavior problems. For this purpose, the sleep of infants at the age of 12 months and at the age of 3-4 years was analyzed. Children with poorer sleep quality were more likely to show behavioral problems and impaired attention regulation.

Untreated chronic sleep disorders can lead to impairment of brain development, neuronal damage and a permanent loss of development potential. This is because sleep loss affects the pineal gland's melatonin production.

Sleep deprivation in fruit flies

Fruit flies that were sleep deprived on the first day of life showed poorer short-term memory and reaction inhibition performance. This lasted for 6 days. The deficits were a consequence of the decreased dopamine signaling in the brain of the fruit flies. Sleep deprivation has also resulted in long-term learning deficits in adult fruit flies.

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: sleep deprivation  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Simone Kaiser: Sleepless in Cornwell. Tony Wright's watchkeeping record. In: SPIEGEL Online. November 10, 2009, accessed January 3, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b Hella Möhring: Medicine: Briton sets world record for staying awake . In: THE WORLD . June 20, 2007 ( online [accessed July 31, 2020]).
  3. ^ Institute for Laboratory Animal Research [ILAR], National Research Council (Ed.): Guidelines for the Care and Use of Mammals in Neuroscience and Behavioral Research . The National Academies Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-309-08903-6 , pp. 121 (English, nap.edu ): “ Sleep deprivation of over 7 days with the disk-over-water system results in the development of ulcerative skin lesions, hyperphagia, loss of body mass, hypothermia, and eventually septicemia and death in rats ( Everson, 1995; Rechtschaffen et al., 1983) ”
  4. ↑ A. Wirz-Justice, RH Van den Hoofdakker: Sleep deprivation in Depression. What do we know, where do we go? In: Biological psychiatry . tape 46 , no. 4 , August 1999, ISSN  0006-3223 , p. 445-453 , PMID 10459393 (English, review).
  5. ↑ Torsten Ulf Brückner: Sleep deprivation and motor activity in depressed patients . Technical University of Munich, October 24, 2006 ( DNB [PDF; 474 kB ; accessed on January 3, 2017] dissertation).
  6. ↑ A Review of the FBI's Involvement in and Observations of Detainee Interrogations in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq (PDF; 6.4 MB) FBI . P. 182 ff. Accessed on February 11, 2011.
  7. ↑ Army Regulation 15-6: Final Report (PDF; 86 kB) US Department of Defense . P. 17 f. Retrieved February 11, 2011.
  8. ^ National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke - Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep
  9. ↑ a b c Sleep Deprivation . January 2009. Archived from the original on August 20, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 1, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au
  10. ↑ a b c d M Suzanne Stevens: Normal Sleep, Sleep Physiology, and Sleep Deprivation . Department of Neurology, Medical and Laboratory Director of Sleep Medicine Clinic, University of Kansas . October 29, 2008. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
  11. ^ Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools . apa.org
  12. ↑ Nadine Petrovsky et al .: Sleep deprivation disrupts prepulse inhibition and induces psychosis-like symptoms in healthy humans. The Journal of Neuroscience, doi: 10.1523 / JNEUROSCI.0904-14.2014 ; 2014 ( abstract )
  13. ^ DJ Gottlieb, NM Punjabi, AB Newman, HE Resnick, S. Redline, CM Baldwin, FJ Nieto: Association of sleep time with diabetes mellitus and impaired glucose tolerance. In: Archives of internal medicine. Volume 165, Number 8, April 2005, ISSN  0003-9926 , pp. 863-867, doi: 10.1001 / archinte.165.8.863 , PMID 15851636 .
  14. ^ Sleep, Less and More, Linked to Heart Disease. By Jeanie Lerche Davis.
  15. ↑ AM Williamson, Anne-Marie Feyer: Moderate sleep deprivation produces impairments in cognitive and motor performance equivalent to legally prescribed levels of alcohol intoxication . June 15, 2000. Retrieved August 2, 2009. doi: 10.1136 / oem.57.10.649
  16. ^ Andrew P. Smith, Handbook of Human Performance . S. 240 (English).
  17. ^ Charles M. Morin: Insomnia . S. 28 (English).
  18. ↑ Alexandros N. Vgontzas, George Mastorakos, Edward O. Bixler, Anthony Kales, Philip W. Gold, George P. Chrousos: Sleep deprivation effects on the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and growth axes: potential clinical implications . In: Clinical Endocrinology , Volume 51, Issue 2, August 1999, p. 205
  19. ^ The association between short sleep duration and obesity in young adults: a 13-year prospective study . In: Sleep , June 15, 2004, 27 (4), pp. 661-666, PMID 15283000
  20. ↑ Inadequate sleep as a risk factor for obesity: analyzes of the NHANES I . October 1, 2005, 28 (10), pp. 1289-1296, PMID 16295214
  21. ↑ David Elmenhorst, Eva-Maria Elmenhorst, Eva Hennecke, Tina Kroll, Andreas Matusch: Recovery sleep after extended wakefulness restores elevated A 1 adenosine receptor availability in the human brain . In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . tape 114 , no. 16 , April 18, 2017, ISSN  0027-8424 , p. 4243-4248 , doi : 10.1073 / pnas.1614677114 , PMID 28373571 , PMC 5402442 (free full text) - ( Online [accessed July 25, 2020]).
  22. ↑ Avi Sadeh, Gali De Marcas, Yael Guri, Andrea Berger, Liat Tikotzky: Infant Sleep Predicts Attention Regulation and Behavior Problems at 3-4 Years of Age . In: Developmental Neuropsychology . tape 40 , no. 3 , April 3, 2015, ISSN  8756-5641 , p. 122-137 , doi : 10.1080 / 87565641.2014.973498 ( online [accessed July 25, 2020]).
  23. ↑ James E. Jan, Russ J. Reiter, Martin CO Bax, Urs Ribary, Roger D. Freeman: Long-term sleep disturbances in children: A cause of neuronal loss . In: European Journal of Pediatric Neurology . tape 14 , no. 5 , September 2010, p. 380-390 , doi : 10.1016 / j.ejpn.2010.05.001 ( online [accessed July 25, 2020]).
  24. ↑ Laurent Seugnet, Yasuko Suzuki, Jeff M. Donlea, Laura Gottschalk, Paul J. Shaw: Sleep Deprivation During Early-Adult Development Results in Long-Lasting Learning Deficits in Adult Drosophila . In: Sleep . tape 34 , no. 2 , February 2011, ISSN  1550-9109 , p. 137–146 , doi : 10.1093 / sleep / 34.2.137 , PMID 21286249 , PMC 3022932 (free full text) - ( online [accessed July 25, 2020]).