Scientists from the University of South Australia announced the existence of confirmed evidence that reveals the secret of the suffering of people with insomnia and their inability to stop thinking at night.
Evidence has shown that disruption of the natural 24-hour rhythm of mental activity in the brain is the main cause of the brain losing its natural ability to move from a state of active daytime thinking to a state of calm at night.
According to the scientists, this study is the first of its kind to map fluctuations in cognitive activity throughout the day in individuals suffering from chronic insomnia, compared to healthy people. Under strictly controlled laboratory conditions, 32 elderly people (16 suffering from insomnia and 16 healthy controls) were monitored over a 24-hour period of bed rest while remaining awake. This approach allowed scientists to isolate the internal rhythms of the brain, and both healthy people and insomnia patients showed There were clear rhythmic patterns in mental activity, with peaks during the afternoon and troughs in the early morning. However, several key differences emerged in the insomniac group.
Professor Kurt Lushington, the study’s lead researcher, said: “Unlike people who enjoyed good sleep, whose cognitive state transitioned predictably from problem-solving during the day to disengagement from thinking at night, people with insomnia failed to make this shift with the same force, as their thinking patterns remained more like daytime during the night hours when the brain should be calming down.”
He explained that sleep does not mean simply closing the eyes, but rather is related to the brain’s separation from goal-oriented thinking and emotional engagement, pointing out that their study shows that this separation is faint and delayed in cases of insomnia, and this is most likely due to disturbances in the circadian rhythm, which means that the brain does not receive strong signals to turn off at night.
It is noteworthy that insomnia is the difficulty of falling asleep or remaining awake continuously, and this leads to feeling tired during the day. Insomnia can be short-term (non-chronic) or chronic, and negatively affects physical and psychological health. Symptoms include difficulty falling asleep, frequent waking up, or waking up very early with daytime fatigue and difficulty concentrating. Insomnia can cause health problems such as high blood pressure, obesity, and depression.