The estimation of sleep quality in different stages and cycles of sleep.
VS Rotenberg
Journal of Sleep Research March 1993 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2869.1993.tb00055.x (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Neurotic insomniac patients and healthy subjects (as described in the text) |
| Key points | The authors report that dream presence in a given sleep stage matters more for the subjective experience of having slept than the duration of the preceding sleep episode, and that neurotic insomniac patients more often deny mental activity when awakened from NREM and REM sleep than healthy subjects. They propose that spontaneous awakenings across sleep stages, especially in the first sleep cycle, relate to insomniacs' tendency to underestimate sleep duration and quality. |
Abstract
Dream content in NREM and REM sleep correlates with the subjective experience of having slept immediately before awakening. The estimation of depth of sleep depends on the quality of the NREM sleep stages. The presence of dreaming in a given sleep stage is more important for the subjective experience of having slept than the duration of the sleep episode before the awakening. Neurotic insomniac patients more often deny mental activity when awoken from NREM and REM sleep, than do healthy subjects. These data suggest that spontaneous awakenings in different sleep stages, especially in the first sleep cycle, correlate with the insomniac's tendency to underestimate sleep duration and quality.