Sleep Away Disease

Scientists believe that sleep deprivation can cause loneliness, an illness that differs from depression. Loneliness is a health concern that often leads to a wide assortment of illnesses such as depression, bad heart pressure, and Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists have found that sleep quality, rather than sleep quantity, has a greater impact on one’s health. Poor sleep quality is more likely to lead to health problems, as well as sluggish, inactive days. When one habitually suffers from poor sleep quality, social interactions suffer, contributing to more serious complications. Using a series of scales and charts, scientists completed a study on the correlation between sleep and health, focusing on loneliness and depression. Scientists aim to discover whether or not poor sleep quality has a significant impact on one’s health.

Researchers conducted the study by putting an ad in the UCLA environs looking for willing participants for a study that would target ‘lifestyle, social contact and sleep quality’.  97 people (28  male, 69 female) were the right age, completed all the correct material  and met the age requirements (ages 18-40). The researchers used a revised loneliness scale done by UCLA. The participants were asked ‘how often’ questions such as how do you feel completely alone or how often do you feel as if nobody understands you, and then told to respond on a scale of 1-4, 1 being never and 4 being always.  The scores were then added to create a total score ranging from 20-80.  Higher scores meant a higher thought of being lonely.

They were required to do the Social Rhythm Metric (SRM), which is a kind of diary that requires you to put down 17 specific activities that would happen during the day.  These activities include what time you wake, what time you eat and your first interactions with people.  The times these activities happened were then put into an algorithm based on a scale of 0-7.  The way it’s set up is kind of like a chart that you fill in with times and names.  The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was also used.  This index measures things that could affect your sleep.  The participants were asked questions about their sleep quality the month before and a score was created from their answers. it asks questions like during the past month how often could you not get to sleep in 30 minutes or how often did you feel too cold, too hot or pain. The last scale that the participants used was the Depression Anxiety and Stress scale (DASS).  This scale measures the frequency and strength of bad or negative emotions the previous week.  It presents statements that the person deems true or not.  Statements used sound like ‘i felt i was close to panic or I found it difficult to relax’ in response to situations that had happened. The participants were asked to complete the SRM every day for 2 weeks, and all of the other tests were conducted inside a lab.

Most of the participants turned out to be normal, with a handful of them actually being in the severe to very severe range.  They found that loneliness and depression, loneliness and sleep quality and sleep quality and depression had a significant positive correlation.  So as predicted, loneliness, depression and sleep all have a weird sort of circle of life.  Each affects others negatively regarding the person.  I actually did all of the scales and metrics myself and was not surprised to find myself in league with the lower percent of people that don’t have such a good outlook on life.  I’ll link the scales in here so you guys can take them and see how you fare on an optimism/pessimism scale.

The link now betwixt loneliness and a poor sleep quality has now been quantified with studies for our better understanding.  Scientist have proven that there is a positive correlation between the quality of sleep received and all emotions after.  Generally, if the quality of sleep is poor, then so will the emotional quality.  Loneliness had a high and positive correlation to getting a lesser sleep quality. So one of the simplest ways to improve better life health is to just get good sleep.


Try these! :
DASS test
The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index