Interrupted Sleep is as Bad as Not Sleeping: Study

Disturbed sleep is as bad as not sleeping at night, warns a study.

A good night's sleep is essential for mental and physical wellbeing. Sleep deprivation affects an individuals' work productivity, concentration and causes fatigue, stress and rapid mood fluctuations.  Recently, experts at Tel Aviv University discovered disrupted sleep is as dangerous missing out on the daily dose of slumber, reports the Time.

Their study involved 61 students who wore wristwatches that monitored their everyday sleep regime. The participants had a full-night sleep for nearly eight hours and on the next night, their sleep was interrupted by phone calls from experimenters asking them to perform computer tasks for 10 to 15 minutes before falling asleep. The subjects were instructed to keep tab of their attention span and emotional status in the mornings after the trial. It was observed that just one night of disturbed sleep negatively affected their thinking, concentration level and state of mood.

The students appeared to be 24 percent more confused, 29 percent more depressed and 43 percent more tired.

People who repeatedly experience disturbed sleep have toxic impacts on their overall health and quality of life. Therefore, getting eight hours of shut-eye is essential for both adults and children.

"We know that these effects accumulate and therefore the functional price new parents, who awaken three to ten times a night for months on end, pay for common infant sleep disturbance is enormous. Besides the physical effects of interrupted sleep, parents often develop feelings of anger toward their infants and then feel guilty about these negative feelings," said Avi Sadeh, study author and professor at the Tel Avi University, reports the Daily Mail.

"Sleep research has focused in the last 50 years on sleep deprivation, and practically ignored the impact of night-wakings, which is a pervasive phenomenon for people from many walks of life. I hope that our study will bring this to the attention of scientists and clinicians, who should recognize the price paid by individuals who have to endure frequent night-wakings," added Prof Sadeh.

 More information is available online in the journal Sleep Medicine.