According to scientists at the John Hopkins University of School Medicine, insomnia is not only a disturbance of night-time. Rachel Salas, M.D., director of studies: “It is like the light switch would be turned on 24 hours a day.” She and her team discovered in a study with 28 adults that the brain of people who are suffering under chronical insomnia show more plasticity and activity in brain regions that are responsible for movement control compared to “good-sleepers”.
The higher excitability of neurons in the motor cortex proves the idea that people who are suffering under insomnia are in a frequent state of an increased information processing. They quasi permanently process impressions which considerably disturbs the sleep ability.
18 of the 28 participants suffered under insomnia for one year or more, the other 10 participants had no sleep disturbances. In the study, the participants received electrical impulses in their dominant thumbs, using TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) which stimulated regions of the motor cortex. Accelerometers measured speed and direction of any movement of the thumbs. At the same time, the scientists paid attention to any compulsory movement connected to the stimulation. The idea was to determine the degree of the brains capacity to learn the new movement pattern of the thumb. The more the thumb was able to do so, the more the cortex could be called plastically.
Now, it is a known fact that lack of sleep is connected with lack of concentration and poor memory. Out of this reason, Salas and her team expected that the good sleepers would cope this task better. The results were astonishing: the participants who suffered under chronical insomnia showed the higher plasticity!
Yet it is not clear why people suffering under insomnia show the higher plasticity, whether this is the cause of insomnia or a compensation of the consequences of sleep deprivation. Possibly, the higher plasticity is also connected with the enhanced metabolism, the increased cortisol-level and the constant worrying under which people with insomnia suffer under.
It’s quite possible, that relaxation methods and meditation might have a determined positive influence on the brain activity of people suffering under insomnia.
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