5 ms·

Study: Sleep interruptions worse for mood than overall reduced amount of sleep

94 points by Amorymeltzer 11y ago

seanhandley 11y ago
As a parent with a small baby I can anecdotally validate this.
- julianpye 11y ago
  As a parent with a small baby, I support your claim and feel your pain... I also found out that the status/quality of the parents' relationship is totally dependent on the baby's sleep.
  - biafra 11y ago
    As a parent of an older child, I can assure you: It will get better. One tip I found especially helpful when trying to let my child sleep through the night: Try not to be on their side, when they fall asleep. If they wake up during the night and you're gone, they will more likely stay awake and call for you. When you were not there when they fell asleep. They will more likely sleep again without calling for you, when they wake up. A person usually wakes up several times per night. It is important to make it as easy as possible to fall asleep again when that happens.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- steven2012 11y ago
  1/3 of people can function okay with persistent poor quality sleep. 1/3 of people can survive but are very grumpy with persistent poor quality sleep. 1/3 of people suffer catastrophic consequences with persistent poor quality sleep. Apparently this distribution is completely random, and usually only manifests itself in situations like having a kid, etc.
emanuer 11y ago
I can anecdotally confirm and at the same time fail to confirm these findings. Since recently I am awoken about 1—2 times per night. Yet, the noise is only disturbing enough to awake me in between my sleep cycles. I have not noticed any mood changes. However after my son was born I definitely noticed a considerable drop in mood due to being awoken randomly at night. (It was also roughly 1—2 times a night) I wonder if the stage of the sleep cycle—one is experiencing—would influence the mood changes.
samwillis 11y ago
As a parent with a 13 month old I can also confirm this for us.
devonkim 11y ago
As a person with two very talkative and aggressive Siamese cats, this rings a bit too true as well. Before I got together with my wife (she chooses cats over children) I had continuous sleep quite regularly in my life and now I can hardly have a night anymore where I'm not woken at some ungodly hour of the night by a hungry cat. Nowadays, I'm significantly more irritable and foggy headed than I've been in my life (granted, it's not just the sleep irregularity I'd guess but it's quite significant to casual observers like friends it seems). When I go on vacation or business trips I'm in so much in better control of my mood (week long trips are much more productive than a month at home) I'd rather have two red eye flights in a week than stay at home for a few days. I liken having these cats to having perpetual toddlers - they're cute and affectionate but they're incredibly nasty and can be exhausting to keep up. Sometimes I wonder if having children would be aggregately in my less taxing.
- s_kilk 11y ago
  > Sometimes I wonder if having children would be aggregately in my less taxing. At least human children stand a chance of growing out of their crappy phases. Plus, when they get big enough you can give them a shovel and put them to work. Cats, by contrast, tend to be life-long assholes.
- arethuza 11y ago
  Well, as the owner of 2 Burmese cats and the parent of a gallivanting teenage son I know which one causes the more serious night time headaches.
- elijahlofgren 11y ago
  To deal with the cats want food before we awake we bought an automatic feeder: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002YHUPC/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1446467720&sr=8-3&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=Cat+Mate&dpPl=1&dpID=41EAtpGnnxL&ref=plSrch http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002YHUPC/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=... - it seems to work most mornings, but we do think one of our cats may take the food from both so we give them the second part of their breakfast when we wake up. Today they wanted 2nd part of breakfast earlier, they didn't know about the time change ;)
- 11y ago
Lawtonfogle 11y ago
My understanding is that REM sleep is the most important bit of sleep[1], and ever sleep cycle (~1.5 hours) you get more REM sleep than the previous cycle. While I haven't run the numbers in years, I remember comparing the total amount of REM sleep between someone who slept 7.5 hours (5 cycles) straight vs. someone who slept 9 hours, broken into half (3 cycles and 3 cycles) and finding out that the 7.5 hours got more REM sleep overall. Granted, this is a very rough calculation based on average numbers of a very simplified explanation, but it would be an interesting issue to research. [1]per our current understanding of the brain, which is quite lacking overall.
- bigchewy 11y ago
  common misperception but not true [1]. All phases are important and REM comes last so it's easy to say it's the most important, because it gets cut short most easily. yes, you are right about the increasing amount of REM in each cycle. Overall, if you are relatively healthy, sleep shouild be straightforward - black out your room, eliminate random noise like cats jumping on you and don't turn on an alarm. [1] Source: I ran a sleep medicine business for 5 years but don't have time to officially source this
pcthrowaway 11y ago
This is one of the more insane articles I've read. 'Delayed bedtime group' - great, but were they delayed by one minute, one hour, or 4 hours? How much sleep did the delayed bedtime group get? It seems highly relevant to the article.
- cba9 11y ago
  If you clickthrough to the Sleep link: http://www.journalsleep.org/ViewAbstract.aspx?pid=30292 http://www.journalsleep.org/ViewAbstract.aspx?pid=30292 , you can download the fulltext through Sci-hub https://www.dropbox.com/s/sqq41vhyji9pjws/2015-finan.pdf https://www.dropbox.com/s/sqq41vhyji9pjws/2015-finan.pdf / http://sci-hub.org/downloads/cdac/10.0000@www.journalsleep.org@generic-F17905026CA9.pdf http://sci-hub.org/downloads/cdac/10.0000@www.journalsleep.o... The delayed amount was not a fixed amount but calibrated to another subject's total sleep, so you can't say exactly how much each one was delayed by overall: "RSO During Nights 2–4 of RSO, subjects’ total sleep opportu- nity period was restricted and yoked to the amount of total sleep time achieved by a matched subject in the FA group. This was accomplished by delaying the RSO subject’s bedtime and keeping a fixed wake time. For example, if an FA subject achieved 210 min of total sleep time on Night 2, the yoked RSO subject would be provided a 210-min opportunity for undisturbed sleep (bedtime 03:30, wake time 07:00) on Night 2. Subjects in the RSO condition were monitored polysomno- graphically for an entire 8-h period."
sjbase 11y ago
I always find it soothing when a study supports what seems empirically true about the human body. So much research into the brain (especially where it intersects with the rest of the body, e.g. sleep) seems paradoxical & contradictory. Unrelated: the ads at the bottom of this site really do a masterful job of demolishing it's credibility... wow.
- pavel_lishin 11y ago
  Wow, you weren't kidding. Screenshot for those with ad-blocking software (mildly nsfw): http://i.imgur.com/Aq1lWNe.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Aq1lWNe.jpg

94 points by Amorymeltzer 11y ago

seanhandley 11y ago

As a parent with a small baby I can anecdotally validate this.

julianpye 11y ago
As a parent with a small baby, I support your claim and feel your pain... I also found out that the status/quality of the parents' relationship is totally dependent on the baby's sleep.
- biafra 11y ago
  As a parent of an older child, I can assure you: It will get better. One tip I found especially helpful when trying to let my child sleep through the night: Try not to be on their side, when they fall asleep. If they wake up during the night and you're gone, they will more likely stay awake and call for you. When you were not there when they fell asleep. They will more likely sleep again without calling for you, when they wake up. A person usually wakes up several times per night. It is important to make it as easy as possible to fall asleep again when that happens.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
steven2012 11y ago
1/3 of people can function okay with persistent poor quality sleep. 1/3 of people can survive but are very grumpy with persistent poor quality sleep. 1/3 of people suffer catastrophic consequences with persistent poor quality sleep. Apparently this distribution is completely random, and usually only manifests itself in situations like having a kid, etc.

emanuer 11y ago

I can anecdotally confirm and at the same time fail to confirm these findings. Since recently I am awoken about 1—2 times per night. Yet, the noise is only disturbing enough to awake me in between my sleep cycles. I have not noticed any mood changes. However after my son was born I definitely noticed a considerable drop in mood due to being awoken randomly at night. (It was also roughly 1—2 times a night) I wonder if the stage of the sleep cycle—one is experiencing—would influence the mood changes.

samwillis 11y ago

As a parent with a 13 month old I can also confirm this for us.

devonkim 11y ago

As a person with two very talkative and aggressive Siamese cats, this rings a bit too true as well. Before I got together with my wife (she chooses cats over children) I had continuous sleep quite regularly in my life and now I can hardly have a night anymore where I'm not woken at some ungodly hour of the night by a hungry cat. Nowadays, I'm significantly more irritable and foggy headed than I've been in my life (granted, it's not just the sleep irregularity I'd guess but it's quite significant to casual observers like friends it seems). When I go on vacation or business trips I'm in so much in better control of my mood (week long trips are much more productive than a month at home) I'd rather have two red eye flights in a week than stay at home for a few days. I liken having these cats to having perpetual toddlers - they're cute and affectionate but they're incredibly nasty and can be exhausting to keep up. Sometimes I wonder if having children would be aggregately in my less taxing.

s_kilk 11y ago
> Sometimes I wonder if having children would be aggregately in my less taxing. At least human children stand a chance of growing out of their crappy phases. Plus, when they get big enough you can give them a shovel and put them to work. Cats, by contrast, tend to be life-long assholes.
arethuza 11y ago
Well, as the owner of 2 Burmese cats and the parent of a gallivanting teenage son I know which one causes the more serious night time headaches.
elijahlofgren 11y ago
To deal with the cats want food before we awake we bought an automatic feeder: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002YHUPC/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1446467720&sr=8-3&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=Cat+Mate&dpPl=1&dpID=41EAtpGnnxL&ref=plSrch http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002YHUPC/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=... - it seems to work most mornings, but we do think one of our cats may take the food from both so we give them the second part of their breakfast when we wake up. Today they wanted 2nd part of breakfast earlier, they didn't know about the time change ;)
11y ago

Lawtonfogle 11y ago

My understanding is that REM sleep is the most important bit of sleep[1], and ever sleep cycle (~1.5 hours) you get more REM sleep than the previous cycle. While I haven't run the numbers in years, I remember comparing the total amount of REM sleep between someone who slept 7.5 hours (5 cycles) straight vs. someone who slept 9 hours, broken into half (3 cycles and 3 cycles) and finding out that the 7.5 hours got more REM sleep overall. Granted, this is a very rough calculation based on average numbers of a very simplified explanation, but it would be an interesting issue to research. [1]per our current understanding of the brain, which is quite lacking overall.

bigchewy 11y ago
common misperception but not true [1]. All phases are important and REM comes last so it's easy to say it's the most important, because it gets cut short most easily. yes, you are right about the increasing amount of REM in each cycle. Overall, if you are relatively healthy, sleep shouild be straightforward - black out your room, eliminate random noise like cats jumping on you and don't turn on an alarm. [1] Source: I ran a sleep medicine business for 5 years but don't have time to officially source this

pcthrowaway 11y ago

This is one of the more insane articles I've read. 'Delayed bedtime group' - great, but were they delayed by one minute, one hour, or 4 hours? How much sleep did the delayed bedtime group get? It seems highly relevant to the article.

cba9 11y ago
If you clickthrough to the Sleep link: http://www.journalsleep.org/ViewAbstract.aspx?pid=30292 http://www.journalsleep.org/ViewAbstract.aspx?pid=30292 , you can download the fulltext through Sci-hub https://www.dropbox.com/s/sqq41vhyji9pjws/2015-finan.pdf https://www.dropbox.com/s/sqq41vhyji9pjws/2015-finan.pdf / http://sci-hub.org/downloads/cdac/10.0000@www.journalsleep.org@generic-F17905026CA9.pdf http://sci-hub.org/downloads/cdac/10.0000@www.journalsleep.o... The delayed amount was not a fixed amount but calibrated to another subject's total sleep, so you can't say exactly how much each one was delayed by overall: "RSO During Nights 2–4 of RSO, subjects’ total sleep opportu- nity period was restricted and yoked to the amount of total sleep time achieved by a matched subject in the FA group. This was accomplished by delaying the RSO subject’s bedtime and keeping a fixed wake time. For example, if an FA subject achieved 210 min of total sleep time on Night 2, the yoked RSO subject would be provided a 210-min opportunity for undisturbed sleep (bedtime 03:30, wake time 07:00) on Night 2. Subjects in the RSO condition were monitored polysomno- graphically for an entire 8-h period."

sjbase 11y ago

I always find it soothing when a study supports what seems empirically true about the human body. So much research into the brain (especially where it intersects with the rest of the body, e.g. sleep) seems paradoxical & contradictory. Unrelated: the ads at the bottom of this site really do a masterful job of demolishing it's credibility... wow.

pavel_lishin 11y ago
Wow, you weren't kidding. Screenshot for those with ad-blocking software (mildly nsfw): http://i.imgur.com/Aq1lWNe.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Aq1lWNe.jpg