Factors affecting insomnia

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  • Created by: 08rmorris
  • Created on: 13-05-15 17:42
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  • Factors affecting insomnia
    • Is the condition where an individual has problems falling asleep and/or staying asleep
      • The sleep that occurs tends not to be deep
        • Is easily disturbed
      • Research has shown that insomnia can be affected by many different things like:
        • Stress
        • Environmental factors
        • Sleep hygiene
        • Sleep apnoea
        • Personality traits
        • Interfering with the natural progression of brain activity
    • Any stimuli such as bright lights, loud noises, very hot or cold rooms, an uncomfortable bed, or a snoring companion
      • contribute to insomnia
        • They interfere with the brains natural calming down of neural activity
        • A change in the location where on sleeps
          • Boost brain activity - lead to insomnia
            • Aggravate the impacts of jet lag
              • However
                • It cannot be proved that it is the change in location not the excess stimulation from being in a foreign sleeping environment
      • There is a high degree of ID when it comes to environmental factors
        • As some people may sleep best in a cold room
          • Whereas
            • Some may not be able to sleep at all in such environments
      • Regular loud noises may become comforting to an individual
        • Therefore
          • We begin to learn what we are used to and some environmental factors that may have a negative affect on sleep for some individuals may be positive for others
    • The importance of light as a zeitgeber
      • Sifffre's Cave Study highlighted
        • Light upon the suprachiasmatic Nucleus
      • Recent research has shown that even low intensity light, especially short wavelength, can inhibit the production of melatonin which is though to trigger sleep
        • TV's Monitors produce light of this character
          • common cause of insomnia
          • However
            • It is difficult to measure this effect in the real world
              • It may be the content of the TV or computer
                • Cognitively stimulating rather than a primarily physiological effect
                  • However
                    • This cannot take away from the fact that there is an epidemic of sleeplessness in the modern work
      • Sleeplessness may be due to  electronic devices e.g. but it may also be due to other enviro factors e.g.
        • People work through the night = disrupting sleep patterns
          • Proven by the increase in prescription drugs
    • Stress
      • Acute stress
        • exam
        • new job
        • Brian activity is heightened
          • The sympathetic AND is active and so the parasympathetic ANS cannot switch off
        • Transitory, so when it is over normal sleep should resume
          • However
      • Chronic stress
        • However
        • The stressor persists
        • Sympathetic ANS activity remains high
          • Lead to long-term disrupted sleep as adrenaline is being produced which keep the individual awake and inhibits relaxation
            • This increases the level of stress
              • However
                • stress can also cause health problems
                  • therefore
                    • making it difficult to distinguish cause and effect
                      • All these issue culminates with individual thinking about the stressor
                        • Inhibits reticular activation
                          • A neutral distractor is necessary
                            • Counting sheep
                            • An act of free will to overcome insomnia
                              • Conscious intentionality to adapt a method to get to sleep
        • Can lead to emption focused responses
          • Smoking
          • Drinking
            • Examples of poor sleep hygiene
              • Smoking
              • these impact directly upon the individuals health and insomnia
      • May be another factor contributing to the epidemic
        • Increase in drugs prescribed for stress
          • Travel
            • Jet lag
        • However
          • Due to the large no. of factors that may be adding to the epidemic
            • Results are correlational
              • Don't know the direction of the effect
            • Nevertheless
              • Research points to the importance of good sleep hygiene and the necessity of instilling this in children from an early age
    • Conclusion
      • Unfortunately many studies into insomnia problem with sample bias
        • Small sample sizes
        • Self-report
          • Social desirability bias
          • Not understanding the question
        • Individual difference
        • Lacks generalisability
      • Questionable whether we can be sure of the direction of effect
        • All results are correlational
          • Example
            • Stress and insomnia have a direct link
              • there is an association
              • There is a correlation between the data
              • We do not know if stress causes insomnia or the insomnia causes the stress

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