Inadequate sleeping impairs brain function and aggravates everyday’s life: A challenge for human psychophysiology?

This editorial notes that major sleep disorders and inadequate sleeping qualify today as a major healthcare, welfare, and social problem. The estimated direct and indirect costs of medical assistance, lost productivity, worsened quality of life, etc., are alarming (Garbarino et al., 2016; Garbarino & Sannita, 2017). The incidence of major sleep disorders is high (approx. 18–23%) in Western societies (Uehli et al., 2014), that of inadequate sleeping because of occupational requirements or due to personal choice is conceivably higher, most likely underestimated. However, professional or voluntary sleep deprivation appears today unavoidable. Inadequate sleeping with no medical relevance may remain overlooked in the absence of reliable tools and operational criteria to help identify its effects on the psychophysiological status and central nervous system (CNS) function during the day, at work, or in other usual activities. A close scrutiny of the psychophysiological methodologies available today would define their potentialities and estimate their reliability in monitoring the poor sleepers’ attention, drowsiness, accuracy, and the like in their everyday life, give physicians new tools and psychophysiologists a novel applicative domain. And help setting guidelines in the approach (Philip, Chaufton, Nobili, & Garbarino, 2014). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research