Lack of sleep is a lot like mental illness

[tempus fugit]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19626275.500-lack-of-sleep-is-a-lot-like-mental-illness.html

Feeling cranky after a bad night's sleep? Now there could be an explanation. Brain activity associated with psychiatric illness has been observed in healthy people who missed a single night's sleep. As well as shedding light on why sleep deprivation makes us feel so bad, the study could change our thinking about mental illness.

Volunteers were asked to miss a night's sleep and stay up until 5 pm the following day. Next came a session in which their brains were scanned as they viewed gory images, such as mutilated bodies or children with tumours. Compared with controls, the sleep-deprived group showed increased activity in the amygdala, an area of the brain involved in processing fear and other emotions (Current Biology, vol 17, p R877).

The heightened activity is no surprise, since tiredness and emotion are known to be linked. But the reason the amygdala was more active appeared to be because connections with the prefrontal cortex - an area of the brain that normally damps the amygdala down - were disrupted. Similar disruption is seen in patients with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, says Matthew Walker of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the study.

"It is thought that psychiatric conditions create sleep problems," he says. "We should entertain the possibility that it is a sleep disorder that is creating the condition."

[Larrikin]

"It is thought that psychiatric conditions create sleep problems," he says. "We should entertain the possibility that it is a sleep disorder that is creating the condition."
Sounds plausible.
Sleep deprivation as a torture is known to severely damage people's psyche. In fact, this is why it is used.

[harjit]

I^ve had to do a lot of all-nighters, or worse, in my work so far. Thankfully less so now.

Sometimes it felt like a heightened sense of awareness and hyper-clarity, similar to doing acid.

[Crowley]

Just as extreme sleeplessness, say 3 or more days, is symptomatically indistinguishable from schizophrenia.

[Empress Cheesatine]

Just as extreme sleeplessness, say 3 or more days, is symptomatically indistinguishable from schizophrenia.

This is true and has been medically proven. I've seen it with a relative. REM deprivation essentially produces dreamstate-like consciousness while the eyes are technically open where the person is thinking things are there that are not, hence the similarity to schizophrenia. Its the REM state trying to kick in.

[Kodos]

I^ve had to do a lot of all-nighters, or worse, in my work so far. Thankfully less so now.

Sometimes it felt like a heightened sense of awareness and hyper-clarity, similar to doing acid.

Its painful when you have to get up but you can go without much sleep for long periods of time.

My feeling of crankiness and drowsiness has little to do with the length of sleep, when I have to get up before the afternoon (everyday except Saturday) I don't like the 1st hour and a half very much... period.

[Helios Panoptes]

I stay awake for long periods of time on occasion(over 50 hours). It's not really worth it, since my level of cognitive functioning is greatly decreased and it takes a lot of sleep to return to normal. For example, I stayed awake for around 57 hours a few days ago and after a 9 hour sleep, I still felt like I had been dragged through a keyhole and my concentration was poor.

[Crowley]

This is true and has been medically proven. I've seen it with a relative. REM deprivation essentially produces dreamstate-like consciousness while the eyes are technically open where the person is thinking things are there that are not, hence the similarity to schizophrenia. Its the REM state trying to kick in.

Yes, dreaming while awake. Interesting state to be in, but probably not very healthy.

[Dodge Viper]

Sometimes I feel quite refreshed and pleasantly "spaced out" after missing a nights kip. In a way, I think cutting down on sleep (not missing full nights) is similar to the spiritual high of a good fast.

Oversleeping is what really harms me, and I'm prone to it alot. I feel terrible after it -- sluggish, depressed, cranky, and then I just want to go and sleep more. It's a vicious circle.

Personally, If I can get myself up and out of bed after 4-5 hours sleep, I feel great for the rest of the day.

[Empress Cheesatine]

Yes, dreaming while awake. Interesting state to be in, but probably not very healthy.

No safe, either. Interesting about this state is that you can control a good amount of control over the content of your dreams, whether you realize you can/are or not.

[Crowley]

No safe, either. Interesting about this state is that you can control a good amount of control over the content of your dreams, whether you realize you can/are or not.

Then there is the paranoid element (as in being followed by helicopters and seeing mirages of spys peering around telephone poles) that always seems to accompany waking dreams. I wonder what relationship paranoia has with dreaming if any?

[sugartits]

Sounds plausible.
Sleep deprivation as a torture is known to severely damage people's psyche. In fact, this is why it is used.

Apparently it's more effective than harsh physical forms of torture...

There was the strappado or estrapade, a pulley which
jerked the body violently in mid-air.There was the leg-screwor Spanish
boot,much used inGermanyand Scotland, which squeezed the calf and
broke the shin-bone in pieces—‘‘the most severe and cruel pain in the
world,’’ as a Scotsman called it—and the ‘‘lift’’ which hoisted the arms
fiercely behind the back; and there was the ‘‘ram’’ or ‘‘witch-chair,’’ a
seat of spikes, heated from below. There was also the ‘‘Bed of Nails,’’
which was very effective for a time in Styria. In Scotland onemight also
be grilled on the caschielawis, and have one’s finger-nails pulled off with
the turkas or pincers; or needles might be driven up to their heads in
the quick. But in the long run perhaps nothing was so effective as the
tormentum insomniae, the torture of artificial sleeplessness which has
been revived in our day. Even those who were stout enough to resist the
estrapade would yield to a resolute application of this slower but more
certain form of torture, and confess themselves to be witches.

http://olldownload.libertyfund.org/Texts/LFBooks/TrevorRoper0256/Crisis17thC/0098_Bk.pdf

[Ojas]

What about those spiritual practisioners who reach the state of samadhi- they have transcended ordinary sleep and when they come out of that trance they need less sleep- can live with little rest?

[Empress Cheesatine]

What about those spiritual practisioners who reach the state of samadhi- they have transcended ordinary sleep and when they come out of that trance they need less sleep- can live with little rest?

I dont believe it.