A neuro-imaging study in the Sept. 1, 2008 issue of the journal Sleep is the first to find that cognitive processes related to verbal fluency are compromised in people with insomnia despite the absence of a behavioral deficit. These specific brain function alterations can be reversed, however, through non-pharmacological treatment with sleep therapy.
Results of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning during verbal fluency tasks show that people with insomnia have less activation than controls in the left medial prefrontal cortex and the left interior frontal gyrus, two fluency-specific brain regions. However, participants with insomnia generated more words than controls on both the category fluency task
Sleeping pills, according to a new study, is a short-term solution to sleep issues, such as insomnia, but that’s nothing new. Sleep specialists have been saying that for years. The long-term solution for some sleep issues, such as insomnia, are more about your knowledge of bedtime habits that could help relieve insomnia.
Many people sleep better when they are on holiday and wish that they could sleep as well all the time. But according to the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), it is not only being free of daily worries that can make a difference to sleep.
Nearly a quarter of the population suffers nocturnal awakenings or “middle of the night insomnia”, on a daily basis, according to study released this week.
The survey of nearly 9,000 people also suggests that one person in three wakes in the middle of the night at least three times a week.
Catherine D. Jefferson, of the Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Disorders and Research Center, set out to determine if a few targeted behaviors that could potentially exacerbate or perpetuate an existing sleep disturbance are differentially practiced in people with insomnia as compared to normal sleepers.
