Sleep onset and morning awakening time tended to occur later in participants with irregular sleep compared to participants with regular sleep. Participants with irregular sleep also tended to engage in more daytime sleeping than participants with regular sleep.

Irregular Sleep and Sleep Timing

MBIs have not been shown to be more effective than the traditional intervention for insomnia, Cognitive-Based Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I). However, an advantage of utilizing MBIs over CBT-I is that it does not require the employment of sleep restriction, which can lead to residual sleepiness. Additionally, MBIs have a comparable or more effective outcome than many medications utilized to decrease the delay of sleep onset and increase sleep quality. It also removes the risk of side effects that may occur when taking these medications. 

How Do Mindfulness Based Interventions Compare To The Traditional Treatments for Insomnia?

Sleep onset is when a person transitions from a state of wakefulness and falls asleep.

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

- Sleep stages
- Sleep patterns over a lifetime
- Sleep onset
- Sleep regularity
- Biological functions of sleep
- Neural systems underlying sleep
- Sleep deprivation
- General anesthetics
- Sleep disorders
- Tracking Information During Sleep
- Sleep-wake cycle

Sleeping and waking

Phillips, A. J. K., Clerx, W. M., O’Brien, C. S. et al. Irregular sleep/wake patterns are associated with poorer academic performance and delayed circadian and sleep/wake timing. Sci Rep 7, 3216 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03171-4

Irregular sleep/wake patterns are associated with poorer academic performance and delayed circadian and sleep/wake timing

Throughout sleep, there are different stages characterized by the presence or absence of types of brain waves. Typically, we cycle through these stages 4-5 times a night, sleeping on average 7-8 hours. These stages are broken down into two categories:

- Non-REM
- REM

Sleep Stages

The partial or total prevention of sleep. Side effects could include hallucinations, but most commonly witnessed effects are increases irritability, decreased ability to concentrate, and episodes of disorientation. Cognitive deficits are noticeable. Prolonged sleep deprivation compromises the immune system in mammals and can lead to death.

Sleep deprivation

The exact reasons we sleep are unclear and hotly debated, but there are four main explanations:

- Energy conservation
- Niche adaptation
- Body restoration
- Memory consolidation

Biological functions of sleep

Sleep library

Sleep regularity refers to whether a person sleeps and wakes at a consistent time. 

Sleep Regularity

Sleep Onset

A drug that renders an individual unconscious. Examples include barbiturates and anesthetic gases. They produce slow waves in the EEG that resemble the ones seen in slow wave sleep, suggesting that they tap into existing brain networks that promote sleep. Almost all are non-competitive agonists at GABA(A) receptors, boosting GABA’s inhibitory effect on neurons.

General Anesthetics

This study investigated sleepers' abilities to filter and allocate their attention towards the most relevant source of information when presented with two streams of dialogue. As of the study, there had been no evidence that the sleeping brain could covertly select which piece(s) of information to prioritize when exposed to multiple pieces of information. This study aims to see if the sleeping brain will amplify meaningful speech compared to irregular signals.

"Sleepers Track Informative Speech in a Multi-talker Environment" Legendre et al. (2019)

Sleep Library

Sleep-Wake Disorders are defined using a multidimensional approach due to the expectations for co-existing or comorbid diagnosis in both mental and neurological health. They are largely characterized by individual’s interpretation of having dissatisfying sleep quality, timing, or amount of sleep. These complaints are often expressed alongside issues of distress or impairment during expected daytime activities. 

Sleep-Wake Disorders

The sleep-wake cycle is a fundamental circadian rhythm that is internally regulated by the body's biological clock. This process governs the daily pattern of sleeping and waking, ensuring it is synchronized with the 24-hour light-dark cycle of the environment.

Sleep-Wake Cycle

Sleep-wake cycles are regulated by several brain areas working together. The thalamus, hypothalamus, and pons are key regions in this coordination: the hypothalamus includes the SCN, described as the body's biological clock, other hypothalamic nuclei work with the thalamus to regulate slow-wave sleep, and the pons helps regulate rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

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