My Perspective

I just read the latest review on sleep abnormalities in schizophrenia. Here are some of the key points: Individuals in the early course of schizophrenia experience considerable sleep loss and overall shallower sleep, and hence the higher rates of insomnia in these subjects.  Sleep disruptions in these patients are also likely involved in psychotic symptomatology, where psychotic experiences worsen sleep and sleep disturbances exacerbates psychotic symptoms. A vicious cycle! Altered sleep characteristics shared among First Episode and Chronic patients included increased sleep onset latency, increased wake after sleep onset, and reduced sleep efficiency. Thus difficulties in initiating and maintaining sleep first occur in full-blown psychosis and remain relatively stable throughout the course of the disorder. Reference : [1] Bagautdinova, Joëlle, Ahmad Mayeli, James D. Wilson, Francesco L. Donati, Rebekah M. Colacot, Nicholas Meyer, Paolo Fusar-Poli, and Fabio Ferrarelli. "Sleep abn