The Effects of Sleep Continuity Disruption on Positive Mood and Sleep Architecture in Healthy Adults
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to test an experimental model of the effects of sleep continuity disturbance on sleep architecture and positive mood in order to better understand the mechanisms linking insomnia and depression. DESIGN: Participants were randomized to receive 3 consecutive nights of sleep continuity disruption via forced nocturnal awakenings (FA, n = 21), or one of two control conditions: restricted sleep opportunity (RSO, n = 17) or uninterrupted sleep (US, n = 24). SETTING: The study was set in an inpatient clinical research suite. PARTICIPANTS: Healthy, good-sleeping men and women were included. MEASUREMENT AND RESULTS: Polysomnography was used to measure sleep architecture, and mood was assessed via self-report each day. Compared to restricted sleep opportunity controls, forced awakenings subjects had significantly less slow wave sleep (P < 0.05) after the first night of sleep deprivation, and significantly lower positive mood (P < 0.05) after the second night of sleep deprivation. The differential change in slow wave sleep statistically mediated the observed group differences in positive mood (P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first human experimental study to demonstrate that, despite comparable reductions in total sleep time, partial sleep loss from sleep continuity disruption is more detrimental to positive mood than partial sleep loss from delaying bedtime, even when controlling for concomitant increases in negative mood. With these findings, we provide temporal evidence in support of a putative biologic mechanism (slow wave sleep deficit) that could help explain the strong comorbidity between insomnia and depression.
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Sleep disruption is a symptom of TBI that can affect other known outcomes of injury.
“Sleep disruption is a symptom of TBI that can affect other known outcomes of injury because a lack of proper sleep disrupts healthy living.10–15”
From Effects of Traumatic Brain Injury on the Orexin/Hypocretin System (2025) · cites this paper as [11]
The Discussion (page unavailable) reports that disrupted sleep continuity reduced positive mood in healthy adults, supporting the general point that poor sleep can affect well-being. The paper does not identify sleep disruption as a symptom of TBI or examine whether it affects other outcomes of brain injury. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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- Authors
- Finan, P. H., Quartana, P. J., & Smith, M. T.
- Affiliations
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (US)
- Corresponding author
- Finan, Patrick H.
- Venue
- Sleep
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2015-11-01
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1735-1742
- ISSN
- 0161-8105 (ISSN-L)
- 1550-9109
- PMC
- PMC4813351
- OpenAlex
- W2173373226
- Cited by
- 140
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 14.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- SLEEP (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (K23DA035915, R01DA032922)
- National Institute of Nursing Research (P30NR014131)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (K23 NS47168, R21NS051771, K23NS047168)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Keywords
- sleep architecture, positive mood, slow-wave sleep, sleep deprivation, insomnia, depression, bedtime procrastination, mediation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Affect, Depression, Female, Humans, Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders, Male, Sleep, Sleep Deprivation, Time Factors, Wakefulness, Comorbidity, Polysomnography, Young Adult, Self Report, Healthy Volunteers
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