Theoretical and Natural Science
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Theoretical and Natural Science
Vol. 23, 20 December 2023
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Review of the effects of chronic stress on human insomnia
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
While there are decent amounts of studies exploring the effects of chronic stress on sleep in animal models (e.g., rats), studies recruiting human subjects on this specific topic are rare in neuroscience and psychology. Thus, this paper aims to review the literature focusing on and mentioning chronic stress effects on human sleep, primarily based on experimental trials and clinical cases. Specifically, this review assesses the relationship between chronic stress (rather than acute stress and traumatic events) and insomnia in adult humans, the neurological and behavioral influence of chronic stress, and potential treatments for insomnia related to stress. The review was conducted using the PsycInfo database. Results from the reviewed literature show that chronic stress is associated with a decrease in neurogenesis and can be predicted by amygdala reactivity. Human subjects are likely to replicate results from rat models that show a decrease in REM sleep time under chronic stress and altered slow wave activities during sleep, and such deprivation of REM sleep can further alter hormonal levels in brain areas relating to stress and learning. Promisingly, there is evidence supporting the efficacy of cognitive and behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), conducted by professional therapists.
Keywords
chronic stress, insomnia, REM sleep, CBT
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Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Biological Engineering and Medical Science
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-83558-219-0
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-83558-220-6
- Published Date
- 20 December 2023
- Series
- Theoretical and Natural Science
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-8818
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-8826
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-8818/23/20231011
- Copyright
- 20 December 2023
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited