

Sleep Deprivation May Spur Serious Mental Problems, Study Finds - px
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-31/sleep-deprivation-may-trigger-mental-problems-in-young-people-study-finds.html

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hugh3
Oooh oooh, can I be "Correlation does not equal causation" guy in this thread?

Seriously though, the actual article is probably much more useful than the
headline, since they have presumably actually quantified the extent of the
correlation between insomnia and other health problems.

The other thing I learned is that there's a journal called _Sleep_.

~~~
skip
Well, I came in here to say exactly that: the paper is based on a survey of
people self-reporting their past history with sleeping. Not a very good way to
control the results.

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jessriedel
> The Pennsylvania researchers tracked 1,741 middle aged volunteers who
> completed a questionnaire on their sleep history, underwent a physical exam
> and were monitored overnight in a sleep laboratory. _The death rate exceeded
> 50 percent for men with chronic insomnia_ , compared with 9.1 percent of
> those who slept well, after researchers adjusted for differences such as
> weight and smoking habits.

Huh? 9% of the normal men died, and _half_ of those with insomnia? How long
did they follow them for?

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dLuna
You stole my comment! :-)

Anyway, answer is here:
<http://www.journalsleep.org/ViewAbstract.aspx?pid=27894>

And to save everyone from clicking on that link: "were followed-up for 14
years (men)", "mortality rate was 21% for men"

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ryanjmo
Definitely not the article you want to read because it is 4 in the morning and
you can't sleep... shit.

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Vivtek
Ah, hell. I should go to bed, then.

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DanielBMarkham
Anecdote: I have Obstructive Sleep Apnea, which meant that for a good while I
was getting virtually no REM sleep every night.

After I got it fixed, I was talking to my doc. He said that he had seen a
couple people who were locked up due to psychiatric problems who actually were
really suffering from sleep disorders. Once the sleeping problem was fixed,
they no longer needed medication or institutionalization.

Powerful stuff, even if it's just second-hand stories.

