August 23, 2001 – A small study reveals that the bodies of people who suffer from insomnia are in constant stress response mode. The research, published in August 2001 in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism1, included 11 insomniac subjects and 13 people with no sleep problem.
The participants’ sleep was monitored in the laboratory for four consecutive nights. Over the past 24 hours, a blood test taken every 30 minutes has shown that insomniacs secreted in greater quantities than people in the control group two hormones closely associated with stress: adrenocorticotrope (or ACTH), manufactured by the pituitary gland, and cortisol, produced by the adrenals. In addition, it was during the evening and the first half of the night that the highest rates were measured. Among insomniacs, those who were most affected secreted more cortisol than those whose sleep was less disturbed.
The authors of the study conclude that chronic insomnia is associated, not with loss of sleep, but with excessive and continual excitement of the central nervous system. Such an imbalance can induce not only chronic anxiety and depression, but also high blood pressure, obesity and even osteoporosis. The researchers therefore suggest that doctors treat their insomniac patients in a way that decreases their level of physical and emotional arousal (using antidepressants, for example) rather than just improving their sleep.
Françoise Ruby – PasseportSanté.net
According to Reuters Health – August 16, 2001
1. Vgontzas AN, Bixler EO, Lin HM, Prolo P, Mastorakos G, Vela-Bueno A, Kales A, Chrousos GP. Chronic insomnia is associated with nyctohemeral activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis: clinical implications.J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2001 Aug; 86 (8): 3787-94.
