Studies Show That Interrupted Sleep Can Be Just As Bad As No Sleep At All

Sleep is a very vital part of our sanity as well as health. When we do not get enough sleep, the symptoms can be pretty obvious that we have become fatigued, cranky, and a variety of other ill mannered aspects. However, when we are asleep and interrupted in the process of dreaming, it can be way more detrimental than compared to having no sleep whatsoever.

In fact, this study conducted by Professor Avi Sadeh with a team of researchers from Tel Aviv University’s School of Psychological Sciences, have created the first study of it’s kind that explains just how interrupted sleep can be physically detrimental compared to no sleep at all.
Published within the study, Sadeh and his numerous colleagues have established a link between interrupted sleep patterns, shortened attention spans, negative moods, and compromised cognitive abilities.
Professor Sadeh states, “The sleep of many parents is often disrupted by external sources such as a crying baby demanding care during the night. Doctors on call, who may receive several phone calls a night, also experience disruptions. These night wakings could be relatively short — only five to ten minutes — but they disrupt the natural sleep rhythm. 

The impact of such night wakings on an individual’s daytime alertness, mood, and cognitive abilities had never been studied. Our study is the first to demonstrate seriously deleterious cognitive and emotional effects.”
The subjects were monitored at home using watch like devices that could detect when they are asleep and when they were awake. The results showed that the experiment had given a direct link between negative mood, disrupted sleep, and compromised attention.
After the experiment, Professor Sadeh states:

“Our study shows the impact of only one disrupted night. But we know that these effects accumulate and therefore the functional price new parents — who awaken three to ten times a night for months on end — pay for common infant sleep disturbance is enormous. Besides the physical effects of interrupted sleep, parents often develop feelings of anger toward their infants 

and then feel guilty about these negative feelings. 
Sleep research has focused in the last 50 years on sleep deprivation, and practically ignored the impact of night-wakings, which is a pervasive phenomenon for people from many walks of life.
I hope that our study will bring this to the attention of scientists and clinicians, who should recognize the price paid by individuals who have to endure frequent night-wakings.”

Source : Spiritscience