Sleep deprivation treatment. Positive and negative aspects of sleep deprivation. The link between sleep disorders and depression

Sleep deprivation and the relevance of its application. The article will reveal all the secrets of such a procedure for the most effective resolution of the mental pathology that has arisen.

The content of the article:

Sleep deprivation is the partial or total deprivation of sleep for therapeutic purposes in order to eliminate a problem such as depression and melancholy. With an organic and psychogenic disorder of consciousness, such a method is an excellent means of combating the described pathologies. You should understand this concept in order to have an idea of ​​​​a rather unusual procedure, which is still worth trying to introduce into life practice.

Description and functions of sleep deprivation

Some experts compare sleep deprivation with alcohol and drug intoxication. At the same time, they voice the risk of developing diabetes in people during this procedure due to the inability of the body to absorb glucose during an artificial refusal of sleep.

At the onset of symptoms of apathy, it is necessary to consider all possible ways out of this state. Sleep deprivation for depression is used in the following cases, when resorting to it is simply necessary:

• Partial remission. Even with the use of potent antidepressants, no one is immune from repeated immersion in a state of blues and despondency. With a voiced relapse, you can try a technique based on sleep deprivation, if it was recommended by the attending physician after a thorough consultation of the patient.
• Reducing the risk of suicide. If a person is constantly in a state of depression, then his nervous system is in serious danger. Obsessive thoughts about death begin to prevail over common sense, which ultimately often leads to avoidable suicide. Sleep deprivation, when used correctly, is able to remove this syndrome, which threatens people's lives.
• Impossibility of pharmacological treatment. With certain allergic reactions, the patient is prohibited from taking antipsychotics and antidepressants. In this case, they can be replaced by a sleep deprivation session if there are no contraindications to its use.
• Accompanying therapy. In combination with drug treatment, in some situations, a psychotherapist may prescribe a voiced procedure. It will be advisable for prolonged depression with attempts to harm one's health.

Indications for sleep deprivation

1. Elimination of clinical depression. With constant relapses of mental illness, many psychotherapists advise to engage in artificial refusal of sleep. At the same time, it should be remembered that after the improvement of the general condition, its significant deterioration may occur. You should not be afraid of this fact, you need to conduct a second session of sleep deprivation with the return of depression under the clear guidance of a specialist.
2. Loss of a sense of identity. The voiced internal state of a person can create significant problems for a person’s personal life and his possible career growth. In most cases, it is precisely the refusal of sleep for a certain period of time that is able to return the injured party to a good mood and self-confidence.
3. Systematic confusion. When depressed, people very often feel like helpless puppets in the hands of evil fate. Confusion is the main feature of their behavior pattern, which becomes an obvious fact for people who surround a depressed person. During sessions of sleep deprivation, such poor fellows are liberated with a further improvement in their internal state.
4. Increased irritability. Depression itself is not a fatal disease unless the person is suicidal. However, few people like to communicate with people who are prone to outbursts of aggression against the background of the voiced pathology. Therefore, with the help of sleep deprivation, it is urgent to get rid of the blues, which prevents you from fully realizing yourself as a person.
5. Memory losses. A fact that is not always voiced is a sign of alcoholism or a brain tumor in a patient. In chronic depression, such “blackouts” of consciousness are quite likely, which can end very badly. Practice shows that after sleep deprivation, such abnormal phenomena either completely disappear or are minimized.
6. Paranoia. It should immediately be noted that the voiced disease must be treated with medication and in special institutions. However, psychiatrists do not exclude the possibility of additional therapy with the help of artificial sleep refusal in paranoid people in the phase of exacerbation of their obsessions.
7. attention deficit disorder. Everyone wants to be in the center of attention of their loved ones. If this does not happen, then he begins to complex and feverishly look for the reasons for the coldness of his inner circle towards him. In the future, in people with attention deficit, depression begins to progress, which can be eliminated with the help of sleep deprivation.
8. Symptoms of psychosis. Some people believe that with blues and despondency, a person becomes without fail an emotionally sluggish person. However, this is not always true, because with prolonged depression, people begin to hate the whole world around them, including themselves. After sleep deprivation sessions, there is a real chance to avoid additional problems in the absence of a desire to fully enjoy life.

Contraindications for sleep deprivation

• while driving. If a person needs to go somewhere or his occupation is connected with the management of transport, then he should forget about such therapy. Many accidents on the road are associated not only with the use of strong drinks by drivers, but also with their lack of sleep before they get behind the wheel.
• Work with electrical appliances. Such an occupation should always be accompanied by increased precautions. Electric shock in some cases can be fatal, so you can not repair household appliances or electrical wiring after a sleepless night.
• Long distance travel. After a sleep deprivation session, it is best to give up trying to leave your native walls altogether. In this case, with some inhibition of the body, you can become an easy prey for scammers. In addition, the likelihood of falling under the wheels of a car increases with inattention to traffic lights with chronic lack of sleep.
• Intense mental activity. Not a single person in the world can boast of the fact that his brain worked like clockwork, with a general overwork of the body. If you have to participate in any responsible event or you need to write an article on a serious topic, then sleep deprivation is urgently canceled.
• Taking sedatives. In most cases, they cause relaxation of the body, so there is simply no point in the session of deprivation of the state of rest. At the same time, it is also worth abandoning the use of sleeping pills, because it will be almost impossible to cope with the urge to go to bed even for a person with iron willpower.
• lactation period. Every child needs a mother who sleeps as much as possible so that she can fully produce the milk that the baby needs. With such experiments on your health during breastfeeding, instead of destroying depression, you can lose the opportunity to supply your child with a natural product for his full development.
• Serious mental disorders. With a pronounced mental pathology, it is strictly forbidden to torture yourself with experiments with sleep deprivation. This factor especially applies to those periods when the patient is in a state of violent insanity and takes potent drugs.

Varieties of sleep deprivation

1. Selective sleep deprivation. You can call such an independent deprivation of peace at night a selective method of getting rid of depression. There is a so-called phase of rapid immersion in the realm of Morpheus, which is also called the REM sleep stage. With selective deprivation of night rest, a person sees dreams, and he also has an active brain function.
2. Partial sleep deprivation. Such manipulations are carried out according to a clearly developed scheme: sleep from five in the evening to one in the morning - an active lifestyle until the next evening - sleep for 4-5 hours.
3. total sleep deprivation. With a similar approach to the voiced problem, a person is in a state of wakefulness for 36-40 hours. It is often not worth getting carried away with such a procedure, because this can lead to a new wave of spleen on the background of general overwork of the body.

Sleep Deprivation Rules

The consequences of sleep deprivation will never make themselves felt if, during its implementation, the following recommendations of specialists are followed:

• Concurrent use of antidepressants. The voiced problem must be dealt with exclusively with complex therapy. Soothing drugs of a psychotropic nature can significantly improve the condition of a person who, at the same time, uses the technique of sleep deprivation. In this case, drugs such as fluoxetine, venlafaxine and bupropion have proven themselves well.
• Avoid chronic sleep deprivation. Many students tremble recall the period of taking the exam, when they had to stay up all night before it. All actions in relation to your health should be carried out with a reasonable approach to the problem that has arisen. You can not torture your body and soul with a systematic refusal of sleep, which will then lead to a complete breakdown.
• Prolonged sleep before its deprivation. Before starting a session of temporarily depriving yourself of a night's rest, you need to get a good night's sleep in order to then proceed with the announced procedure with renewed vigor.
• Special Light Therapy. In the interval from 4 to 6 in the morning, you need to turn on all the lights in the house, if these actions do not create discomfort for the rest of the family. It is at this time that a person most of all wants to sleep, so such manipulations will help him get rid of the desire to sink into a nap.

Good sleep is the key to health and energy for the whole day. This article will discuss what happens to the body when there is little sleep, as well as how sleep deprivation can be used for depression.

Sleep deprivation may be used to treat depression

What happens to the body when it lacks a night's rest?

A person who has not slept well not only thinks slowly, remembers poorly and concentrates with difficulty, important changes also occur in his body, because sleep deprivation does not go away without consequences, namely:

• After several sleepless nights, insulin resistance increases, and there is also an imbalance in biologically active substances that regulate hunger, it intensifies. The above together leads to an increase in body weight and increases the risk of developing type II diabetes.
• Immunity decreases, the body becomes more susceptible to infectious and other diseases.
• In women, the menstrual cycle may be disturbed.
• Night time is the time when the body is most actively engaged in self-healing. At the cellular level, errors in the work of cells are eliminated. If rest is chronically lacking, our body copes worse, more errors can occur during cell duplication than it could be, this, in the long term, can increase the risk of developing cancer.

What happens if you don't sleep for a long time?

Lack of sleep for a long time leads to serious consequences for the body

One night without sleep will not cause any particular harm to health in general, but will affect the quick wits and concentration in the coming day. That's why they say that preparing all night before an exam or an important meeting is a bad idea, the lack of a night's rest will only prevent you from getting together and making the most of your abilities.

Further refusal of sleep will already lead to metabolic changes, mood swings, deterioration in coordination of movement.

If a person does not sleep further, then he can feel peculiar dips ─ as if consciousness turns off for a few seconds. So, if at the same time you go to the subway, you can not notice and drive through your station. This is not a dream, so the brain is trying to give rest to its individual parts. If suddenly you find yourself in this state, it is better to stop and think about your health. Because the consequence in the future may be a change in consciousness, hallucinations may even occur. There is hardly anything more important than health, you need to give your body, finally, the necessary rest to restore strength and new achievements.

The link between sleep disorders and depression

Sleep disturbances almost always go hand in hand with depression. Moreover, with depression, there may be a tendency to both its lack and excess sleep. Sleep deprivation itself also increases the risk of depression.

Depression leads to sleep disturbances

Here are some reasons why depression interferes with sleep.

• Increased activity of the nervous system as a whole, as well as the vegetative (providing the activity of internal organs) component of it.
• Constant stress, obsessive thoughts associated with it, pondering complex events and situations, real or far-fetched.
• Increased anxiety.
• Increased levels of stress hormones.

Which specialist to contact?

In order to correct sleep disorders, you need to understand their cause. Sometimes a consultation with a therapist is enough for this, in some cases, if, for example, poor sleep is associated with depression, an appeal to a psychiatrist will be required. In the arsenal of specialists, in addition to studies showing the state of the body as a whole, there are narrower ones: electroencephalography and polysomnography.

Polysomnography

Treatment

Lack of sleep, the voluntary refusal of sleep is harmful and has serious health consequences. If the cause of this condition lies in a depressive disorder, then the most important thing in this case is the treatment of depression, psychotherapeutic or medication, as decided by the attending doctor.

Also an important component of treatment is lifestyle correction:

• It is necessary to establish your daily routine ─ get up and go to bed at about the same time. In addition, it is desirable that the difference in the morning rise on a weekday and a weekend should be no more than 2 hours.
• Daily sufficient physical activity should become habitual, even a walk in nature will help normalize sleep.
• The last meal before going to bed should not be too dense, but you should not go to bed hungry either - just drink a glass of kefir or eat some fruit.
• It is worth giving up bad habits or at least refraining from smoking and drinking alcohol in the afternoon. Also avoid drinking coffee and other stimulating drinks.
• Take care of the comfort in your bed, it should be comfortable enough, nothing should distract you from sleep. In addition, you should strictly monitor that you go to bed only for the purpose of sleeping, you can’t eat in it, watch TV, read. If you can’t fall asleep for an hour in the evening, then it’s better to get up and do some business, returning to bed only when drowsiness reappears.

Deprivation as a method of treatment

Although the lack of sleep does not bring any benefit to the body, its deprivation, oddly enough, is used as a therapeutic method in the fight against sleep disorders and depression. It is believed that the conscious refusal of sleep for 36 or a little more hours can help establish circadian rhythms, improve depression, and increase sensitivity to drug therapy. However, there are studies suggesting that a worsening of the course of depression can be a consequence of deprivation, especially in young patients.

The method of deprivation itself includes the lack of sleep during the day, at night and the next day. At the same time, you can’t sleep at all, the greatest activity should fall on the time from one to two in the morning and from four to six in the morning, since at this time drowsiness is the strongest. The day before, drugs with a hypnotic effect are canceled. It is better not to abuse watching TV. The patient is allowed to have light snacks at night, walk in the fresh air.

After one such session of deprivation, an improvement in the state may already be felt (falling asleep after deprivation is easier, mood improves, a positive attitude to life appears), but this effect is not stable, 5-6 such sessions may be required for a more pronounced effect.

Sleep deprivation is used in the treatment of certain types of depression.

It is carried out twice a week, gradually reducing to one session. However, there may not be improvement, the patient may react with an exacerbation. In addition, there are some contraindications. These include increased blood pressure and exacerbation of chronic diseases. Upon reaching a therapeutic effect, it is worth abandoning deprivation.

Thus, sleep deprivation can be an effective treatment for depression and insomnia, if used appropriately. Deprivation should be used only for therapeutic purposes, in other cases and without the supervision of a specialist, it is harmful.

Sleep is a special state of the body, on the usefulness of which its physical condition and psyche largely depend. I want to talk about the method of treatment using modified sleep, which successfully treats such a severe mental disorder as depression. This treatment is called sleep deprivation.

Sleep deprivation (from Latin deprivatio - loss, deprivation) is a special psychotherapeutic technique that is used in psychiatric practice to treat depression. This technique consists in the artificial lack of sleep for some time. The method of deprivation can bring a person out of a state of severe depression without the use of drugs for several days.

The history of the appearance of the deprivation method

The method of sleep deprivation cannot be attributed to new ones. Deprivation was well known even in ancient Rome. In those ancient times, the Romans, who loved feasts and festivities, noticed that a person who was in a difficult, depressed state again became cheerful and sociable after a night spent completely without sleep. For centuries, this method was forgotten, and only in the 70s of the last century, deprivation was rediscovered by Swiss psychiatrists for the treatment of patients with severe depression. This technique was accepted with great interest, which gradually faded away, as it gave way to modern methods of treating depression using medications.

Deprivation is fundamentally different from complete sleep deprivation for several days. Prolonged lack of sleep is a heavy burden for the nervous system and psyche a person, the result of which is a violation of the control of the body. The result of this is that sleep can occur anywhere and anytime. In addition, the appearance of various hallucinations, confusion in the minds of real events and dreams is often observed. Forcible sleep deprivation is a severe test for the psyche. It was used as torture during the Inquisition, as well as during the Second World War in Nazi concentration camps and the Gestapo. In our time, the forced lack of sleep for a long time is used by some religious movements to transfer the psyche to an altered state.

Methodology

Deprivation refers to effective methods of treating depression without the use of drugs. The method of deprivation is very simple and accessible. It consists in the following. At nightfall, you do not need to go to bed, but continue to be awake throughout the night and the whole next day. The next day you need to go to bed at the usual time and sleep should continue for 10-12 hours. Thus, the period of wakefulness increases to one and a half days, after which normal sleep follows. The first sessions of deprivation are carried out twice a week, and if necessary, continue treatment - once a week.

In a state of depression, falling asleep is always slower than normal. Sleep at the same time shallow, superficial, with frequent waking during the night. All phases of sleep are disturbed, so people experiencing depression hardly rest during sleep and wake up feeling tired and exhausted.

The deprivation technique normalizes sleep cycles and its duration. To a certain extent, deprivation can be considered as an artificial stress for the body.

When conducting deprivation, it is very important to overcome the strong desire to fall asleep that occurs in the first half of the night. Even a short sleep breaks the technique and the whole effect is lost. In order to stay awake, you need to alternate increased physical activity and rest. You can clean the apartment, do laundry, wash dishes, read books, do needlework. The alternation of physical activity and rest helps to overcome the first half of the night, when you want to sleep especially hard. At three or four in the morning, the desire to fall asleep disappears, the mood becomes upbeat, and working capacity increases. In this state, a person is throughout the next day, and with the onset of night, one should, as usual, go to bed. Sleep deprivation sessions should not be performed several nights in a row. This can lead to the appearance of various neuroses and even psychoses.

Efficacy of treating depression with deprivation

Deprivation is especially effective in severe and moderate depression, as well as in melancholic syndrome and melancholy form. With anxious depression, the result of the use of deprivation is less pronounced. This method of treatment has no contraindications and it is desirable that treatment, especially courses consisting of several sessions, be carried out under the supervision of a physician. The result of treatment is especially good if the treatment of depression is started in the first weeks of its development. With prolonged depression, this method also gives a good effect, but longer treatment is required.

A stable positive result from the deprivation technique usually occurs after six to eight sessions. Most patients report a significant improvement in their condition after the first deprivation treatment session. That is, even if the first session of deprivation did not bring a positive result, treatment should be continued.

sleep deprivation- lack or complete lack of satisfaction of the need for sleep. May occur as a result of sleep disorders, conscious choice, or coercion, during torture and interrogation. Sleep deprivation is also used to treat depression.

Usage

Scientific research

In science, studies and experiments on sleep deprivation are conducted in humans and animals to study the functions of sleep and the biological mechanisms associated with sleep deprivation.

Treatment of depression

Sleep deprivation is used in the treatment of certain types of depression, especially with elements of apathy. This method was introduced into psychiatric practice by Walter Schulte in 1966. In his studies, it was shown that sleep deprivation improves the condition of patients with psychogenic and organic depression.

torture

Various types of deprivation of a person's basic needs, including sleep deprivation, were used as methods of torture. So, in the American camp of Guantanamo, prisoners were tortured with music - deprivation of sleep and rest with the help of loud, long music. During the Vietnam War, American pilots captured in North Vietnam were tied or chained to a chair and forced to sit for days without changing their posture, while not allowing them to sleep.

Conscious choice

Sometimes sleep deprivation can be used consciously as a form of entertainment, self-discovery, or a legal substitute for drugs. The sleep deprivation technique is also used to achieve an altered state of consciousness - vivid hallucinations, heightened feelings, etc. In Christianity, the practice is symbolically used in the form of an all-night vigil.

The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for the number of hours a person goes without sleep. In the winter of 1963, it was installed by 17-year-old schoolboy Randy Gardner, who was awake for 264 hours (11 days). After that, representatives of the Book of Records stated that they would no longer register attempts to break this record, as this could pose a threat to human health. However, attempts to break the record continued. The latest record is dated 2007 and belongs to Briton Tony Wright, who was able to stay awake continuously for 274 hours.

Physiological effects

In general, lack of sleep can lead to the following symptoms:

• muscle pain
• drop in visual acuity
• clinical depression
• color blindness
• excessive sleepiness during the day
• decreased ability to concentrate
• loss of sense of identity and reality
• weakened immune system
• dizziness
• general confusion
• hallucinations (visual and auditory)
• tremor of the limbs
• headache
• hyperactivity
• irritability
• lucid dreaming (when sleep resumes)
• nausea
• nystagmus (rapid involuntary rhythmic movement of the eyes)
• psychotic-like symptoms
• pallor
• slow reaction time
• slurred or unrelated speech
• sore throat
• stuffy nose
• weight loss or gain
• severe yawning
• symptoms similar to:
  • attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
  • alcohol intoxication
• indigestion, indigestion, diarrhea
• increased blood pressure
• high risk of diabetes high risk of fibromyalgia

Diabetes

A study conducted at the University of Chicago Medical Center showed a strong negative effect of sleep deprivation on the human body's ability to absorb glucose, which can lead to diabetes.

Impact on the brain

Sleep deprivation can negatively affect the functioning of the brain. A 2000 study at the University of California, San Diego used magnetic resonance imaging to monitor brain activity in people doing simple oral learning exercises. The activity of the frontal lobes was higher in sleepy people - depending on the exercise, the brain sometimes tried to compensate for the lack of sleep. The temporal lobe of the brain, which is responsible for language processing, was activated in rested people, which was not observed in sleepy people. The activity of the parietal lobe of the brain, unused in rested people when performing oral exercises, was higher in people with sleep deprivation.

Animal experiments show that sleep deprivation increases the release of stress hormones, which can lead to a decrease in the rate of cell regeneration in the brain. During sleep deprivation, sleepiness may occur, which is a temporary mental disorder.

Impact on the healing process

A 2005 study showed that the ability of a group of rats that went 5 days without sleep to heal wounds did not change significantly compared to a control group.

Ability Weakening

According to a study published in 2000 in the British Medical Journal, sleep deprivation is somewhat similar to alcohol intoxication. People who stayed awake for 5-7 pm performed worse than those with a blood alcohol level of 0.05%, which is the legal limit in many Western countries (0.08% in the US and UK).

Lack of sleep due to long shifts at doctors leads to an increase in medical errors.

Impact on growth and obesity

Sleep deprivation leads to suppression of growth hormone secretion. With its deficiency, excess calories are converted not into muscle mass, but into adipose tissue. In children, a deficiency of this hormone leads to growth retardation.

Here the other day I was cleaning my computer and found an article about sleep deprivation. Yes, it was a long time ago - I wanted to try this technique while still studying at the university, but my hands did not reach ...

What is sleep deprivation?
Non-drug entry into a state of another reality.

Sleep Deprivation // Mash

It is clear that our daily work represents a sum of stimuli that causes a certain sum of exhaustion, and then this sum of exhaustion, having reached its end, automatically causes, by an internal humoral way, an inhibitory state, accompanied by sleep.

Pavlov, 1935

...Bodily rest is not an obligatory element of physiological sleep...

Sleep is a special genetically determined state of the human body (and warm-blooded animals, i.e. mammals and birds), characterized by a regular successive change of certain printing patterns in the form of cycles, phases and stages.

Kovalzon V.M.

Definitions of things of this kind (bread, water, walking, digestion, vision, etc.) are always depressing. On the other hand, two teachers of our great and mighty Polytechnic University come to mind: Prokoshenkov E.Ya. and Tsepenev R.A. The first one wanted to hear from green first-year students the definition of the term "temperature", which made the people tired in two minutes. The second frowns at the white-shirted-tie boys approaching him in the street with books of a sectarian bias. To the question "Do you know who rules the world?" he asks his: "What is management?" The boys turn 180 degrees and quietly go to discuss the cruelty of reality among themselves. So the terminology is a useful thing in places. Grandfather Vladimir Ilyich (an authority in some circles) said: “Before we speak, let's agree on terms” (not a quote, but it will do).

Insomnia (insomnia)

There are three stages of insomnia: in the first of them (the most frequent), falling asleep is disturbed, in the second - the maintenance of sleep, in the third, an early final awakening is noted. The causes of insomnia are manifold. It can occur in response to transient stress, chronic emotional conflict, or physical illness. Common causes of insomnia: psychostimulants, caffeine, violation of the habitual regimen. Various factors contribute to the development of chronic insomnia, including emotional conflicts, an inappropriate (maladaptive) response to stress, the constant expectation of poor sleep, and associated anxiety.

hypersomnia

If almost everyone knows about insomnia, then only a few know about hypersomnia (a pathological increase in sleep). The term is applied to patients who complain of drowsiness and have an irresistible craving to fall asleep suddenly, in broad daylight; may be of a short-term nature, accompanied by common diseases, such as influenza. However, as a rule, hypersomnia occurs with fairly severe lesions of the brain with tumors that cause an increase in intracranial pressure, and may also be the result of depression, abuse of sleeping pills, and some forms of encephalitis.

Dream conversations

Such "conversations" usually consist of a few words that are difficult to understand. Quite long night tirades are less common, when the sleeping person “reports” to unknown people about his worries and his life. The ingrained opinion that in a dream a person can blurt out all the secrets is a fiction. In a dream, a person almost never blurts out too much. Moreover, during nighttime conversations, a person does not see any dreams. And what he sees in a dream, he will never say at this moment.

disturbing dreams

This is a long, terrible dream, from which a person wakes up in horror. Awakening usually occurs in the second half of the sleep period. According to some scientists, frequent nightmares indicate a predisposition to schizophrenia. However, they can also occur in artistic, creative individuals.

Night terrors

As a rule, they come in the first third of the night. Always accompanied by a piercing scream or cry. At this moment, a half-asleep man with a twisted face sits up in bed, sometimes immediately awakens, seized with panic horror. However, often after that he falls asleep, forgetting about the experienced nightmare. The cause of night terrors is not fully understood.

How much sleep is considered normal?

The duration of sleep varies depending on the type of nervous activity of a person and on his age. Excitable people, choleric people, 6-7 hours a day are enough. But people of the thinking type, phlegmatic people need a longer sleep - 8, and sometimes 9 hours. As people age, they sleep less than when they were young. But this is by no means an indicator of health. Prolongation of sleep time in the elderly and senile age is necessary and physiologically justified.

Interest in effects research deprivation(sleep deprivation) is based on the evidence that people who are deprived of sleep for a long time often develop disorders of thinking and perception, similar to those observed in schizophrenia.

Deprivation is essentially a classic method of destruction: in order to understand the functions of an individual organ, it is damaged or removed, interpreting the consequences. Observations on healthy people showed that gentle deprivation for one or several days did not lead to serious disturbances in the body and psyche of the subjects under study. There was only increased drowsiness, fatigue, irritability, absent-mindedness.

It is believed that such work on humans cannot last more than 2-3 days, so the effects of prolonged sleep deprivation are studied only on animals.

Sleep consists of two different states of the body - slow-wave and paradoxical (fast) phases. A sleeping person has occasional rapid eye movements (REM) during the night. The sleep phase during which REM is recorded has been termed "REM" (or REM) sleep or REM sleep; in this phase, a person most often sees dreams. The rest of the stages of sleep are collectively referred to as NREM or non-REM sleep. Interestingly, it is basically impossible to completely eliminate non-REM sleep. As experiments have shown, if at the first signs of sleep on the electroencephalogram (EEG) the animal is awakened, then there is a temporary “fragmentation” of sleep for very short periods and its spatial “localization”, when sleep occurs in separate parts of the brain. Various experiments show that no matter what type of sleep deprivation is performed (total sleep deprivation, selective deprivation of a slow or paradoxical phase), as a result, the suppression of paradoxical sleep is always critical. Sooner or later, this leads to the same dramatic consequences (changes in internal organs, appearance and behavior). After a few "sleepless" weeks, everything ends with the inevitable death of animals. It is characteristic that the direct cause of their death could not be found.

+ Deprivation, - Depression!

Sleep deprivation is used in the treatment of certain types of depression, especially with elements of apathy, lethargy and lethargy. This non-pharmacological method of treating depression in 1966. introduced W. Schulte into psychiatric practice. They showed that sleep deprivation improves the condition of patients with psychogenic and organic depression. A special effect was noted in dreary depression, which is not inferior in effectiveness to antidepressants. Deprivation is less effective in asthenic and anxious depression, and no positive result has been obtained in masked depression. Both total and partial DS are used. In the first case, patients do not sleep day, night and the next day, that is, the total time of their wakefulness is 36-40 hours. The course of treatment consists of 6-8 sessions (two sessions in the first 2-3 weeks with a gradual transition to one session per week). In the treatment of depression by partial sleep deprivation, patients go to bed at 21-22 hours with their subsequent forced awakening at 1-2 hours. The entire course consists of five sessions held daily.

Contraindications: in a healthy person, sleep deprivation leads to many disorders of various organs and the psyche. Long periods of DS can lead to hallucinations and delusions.

Experiences

Sooner or later, a person is faced with sleep deprivation. A typical example is the surrender of "tails" by students. I want to make a reservation right away that this does not mean one night spent on notes and drawings. Personal experience - the birth of a graduation project in the third year of the institute in a short period of up to two weeks. The first week was still tolerable, but in the second I managed to sleep only 14 hours in 5 days. I come (crawl) to the institute on the day of the diploma student's holiday and remember that I forgot to write the introduction. Bullshit. I calmly settle down in a free audience an hour before delivery and manage not only to come up with what I will push at the beginning of the speech, but also write it all down on paper a la a graduation project, at the same time trying to keep it all in my memory for the near future. Effective activity during deprivation requires sufficiently large forces and is possible only for a short time. I can say one thing: no depression at all, attitude to stressful situations is positive (from the verb “put”). Stood before the commission how in a dream, talking on the machine and thinking about a spacious and soft bed. Speech flowed - water will envy. BUT! All this was learned, suffered, done and crammed. Passed. Perfectly". In the fifth year, I did not experiment, I did it in advance. Somehow I no longer wanted to lay down my health for the benefit of science and enlightenment.

But it is, little things. For some individuals, DS is interesting as an alternative to "destructive" drugs. Goal: expanding the boundaries of perception and understanding of the world, increasing creativity, the amount of free time. The most important thing here is not to overdo it. A sober approach and a careful assessment of one's strengths are needed. It is unacceptable to combine DS with various drugs (tea, coffee, marijuana, alcoholic beverages are also highly undesirable), physical activity, mental disorders and various deviations.

And another article on sleep deprivation. Here is an approach to sleep deprivation as a powerful means of expanding consciousness.


sleep deprivation

Copyright: (c) Center for the Development of Transpersonal Psychology.
Free distribution without changing the text is allowed. Quoting with reference to the source.

Much has been said about experiments with sleep deprivation. Although I have not yet heard cases related to the "cultivation" of this approach in my daily life. I decided to do such experiments and here are some calculations. There were other experimenters, but I was the only one who got involved in this experiment among my acquaintances. I warn you that some data may be different for different people. This is the first indication (I have not seen anything like this anywhere else, if there is already - let me know)

I must say right away that since even marijuana is called a drug, in this text I use the word "drug" in the sense of "a means of changing consciousness." DS, therefore, can also be called a drug.

After all these articles, I decided to calculate how much time it takes me to sleep. On average 36-40 hours per week. It's not much, but I think you can try and reduce. Only now the duration of sleep will have to be increased if you sleep every other day ....
Let's see what comes out of all this.......