![]() Research suggests that these individuals alternate between stage one of sleep (light sleep) and wakefulness, without ever entering deep sleep, or stage three. During sleep, paradoxical insomnia sufferers are on high alert and extremely aware of their surroundings. If you found this information helpful and/or interesting, please like and share on social media sites.People with this condition misjudge how long it takes them to fall asleep, how frequently they wake up, and how long they’ve actually slept. Michael Schwartz, whose SleepQ app I reviewed last fall, believes that the same thing can be accomplished with a smart phone and an app costing just $4.99. Her perception of sleep becomes much closer to that recorded on her EEG. After repeated awakenings, the patient develops the ability to recognize the bodily cues that accompany sleep. Each time a patient falls asleep, she’s awakened and asked whether she thinks she’s asleep or awake. Ralph Downey, a sleep specialist at Loma Linda Sleep Center, conducts therapy sessions for people with paradoxical insomnia in a sleep lab. After receiving the information, 2 of the 4 patients reported falling asleep much more quickly and sleeping a lot longer. ![]() Together, they looked at the patient’s EEG, watched a video of the patient sleeping, and noted differences between the recording of sleep and patient perceptions. Investigators at The University of Alabama treated four paradoxical insomnia patients with a kind of “ sleep education.” After behavioral therapies failed to help, a specialist talked to each patient about sleep and sleep staging. These patients “may have a sort of agnosia of their sleep,” they conclude. On the other hand, a team of Italian researchers thinks the problem is mainly perceptual. Daily aerobic exercise-and possibly the daily practice of yoga, tai chi, or qi gong-would cut down on arousal and likely promote sounder sleep. If physiological hyperarousal is the main problem for insomniacs in this group, one way to address it would be through physical training. Drug-free behavioral therapies such as sleep restriction and stimulus control may not help. There is no standard treatment for people with paradoxical insomnia. Scientists are not sure if this sleep disorder is simply a way station en route to objective insomnia or a completely different kettle of fish. Overall, then, the sleep of people with paradoxical insomnia tends to be light and characterized by hypervigilance. This suggests that people with paradoxical insomnia are prone to perceiving and possibly even processing information when they sleep.
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