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Summary: A new study has identified five distinct “biopsychosocial sleep” profiles that connect the way we sleep to our brain networks, our mental health, our cognition and our lifestyle. Using data from more than 700 participants, the researchers found that different sleep patterns, ranging from poor quality to resilience to short duration, showed unique neural connectivity patterns.
For example, those who slept poorly showed stronger links between attention and sensorimotor networks, which correlated with anxiety and depression. The findings show that sleep is much more complex than simple duration, and each sleep profile reflects a unique signature in both the mind and brain.
Key facts:
Five distinct sleep profiles: Identified through data-driven analysis that links sleep traits, brain function, and mental health. Mind-brain connection: each profile correlates with different connectivity patterns of the brain network. Personalized information: can help tailor clinical approaches to sleep, mental health, and cognitive support.
Source: More
Researchers led by Aurore Perrault of Concordia University, Canada, and Valeria Kebets of McGill University, Canada, have used complex data-driven analysis to uncover relationships between multiple aspects of sleep and individual variation in health, cognition, and lifestyle.
Published October 7 in the open access journal PLOS Biology, the study reveals five biopsychosocial profiles of sleep and their associated patterns of functional connectivity between brain regions.
Most sleep studies focus on a single aspect, such as duration, and examine how it relates to a single outcome, such as poor mental health. However, attempting to understand and predict outcomes by combining the results of many different single association studies invariably fails.
Video Credit: Neuroscience News
The new study by Perrault and his team takes a different approach. Using a sample of 770 people from the Human Connectome Project data set, they performed a data-driven multivariate analysis.
Because the data set contains details about each person’s sleep characteristics, as well as brain imaging data and biopsychosocial data, the analysis was able to find relationships between all of these factors that had not been discovered before.
The study discovered five biopsychosocial sleep profiles. The first was generally poor sleep and was associated with worse psychopathology, including depression, anxiety, and stress.
The second was characterized by sleep resilience because greater psychopathology, especially attention difficulties, was not associated with reports of poor sleep.
The remaining three profiles were more specific. For example, one was primarily characterized by sleep duration, with short durations being associated with worse cognition.
Each of the five profiles was associated with a unique brain network organization. For example, for people belonging to the first profile, resting-state functional connectivity between subcortical brain regions and sensorimotor and attention networks was high. Knowing these profiles will allow doctors to provide better individualized treatments and support to their patients.
The authors add: “Sleep is made up of many dimensions, not just how long we sleep. By analyzing more than 700 young adults, we discovered five distinct ‘sleep profiles’ based on reports of sleep duration, the presence of interruptions, and the use of sleep medications.
“Each profile had its own distinctive link in health, lifestyle and cognition, and even showed unique neuroimaging traits using fMRI.”
“Our study demonstrated that different aspects of sleep are related, but can also be separable domains with specific connections to biopsychosocial factors (lifestyle, physical and mental health, and cognitive performance).
“This highlights the importance of considering an individual’s entire sleep picture to help doctors make more accurate assessments and guide treatment,” says Aurore Perrault.
“The predominance of mental health markers in most profiles is not surprising, since sleep is one of the five key domains of human functioning that is likely to affect mental health,” says Valeria Kebets.
“The different sleep profiles were also supported by unique patterns of brain function measured with MRI, suggesting that sleep experiences are reflected not only in health and behavior, but also in brain wiring and activity,” notes Aurore Perrault.
Key questions answered:
A: Unlike typical studies that focus on one sleep factor, this multivariate approach examined dozens simultaneously, revealing new multidimensional sleep profiles.
A: The study discovered five types, including poor sleepers, resilient sleepers, and those whose problems were primarily related to interruptions or short duration.
A: Most profiles showed strong links between sleep characteristics and mental health markers, which helps explain why individualized sleep treatment is crucial.
About this sleep, cognition and mental health research news
Author: Claire Turner
Source: More
Contact: Claire Turner – PLOS
Image: Image is credited to Neuroscience News.
Original research: Open access.
“Identification of five biopsychosocial sleep profiles with specific neural signatures linking sleep variability to health, cognition, and lifestyle factors” by Aurore Perrault et al. More biology
Abstract
Identification of five biopsychosocial sleep profiles with specific neural signatures linking sleep variability to health, cognition, and lifestyle factors.
Sleep is essential for optimal functioning and health. Interconnected with multiple biological, psychological, and socioenvironmental factors (i.e., biopsychosocial factors), the multidimensional nature of sleep is rarely exploited in research.
Here, we implemented a data-driven approach to identify biopsychosocial sleep profiles that linked self-reported sleep patterns to interindividual variability in health, cognition, and lifestyle factors in 770 healthy young adults.
We discovered five profiles, including two profiles reflecting general psychopathology associated with reports of overall poor sleep or absence of sleep complaints (i.e., sleep resilience), respectively.
The other three profiles were driven by sleep aid use and social satisfaction, sleep duration and cognitive performance, and sleep disturbances related to cognition and mental health.
Furthermore, the identified biopsychosocial sleep profiles showed unique patterns of brain network organization.
In particular, alterations in somatomotor network connectivity were involved in the relationships between sleep and biopsychosocial factors.
These profiles can potentially disentangle the interplay between individuals’ variability in sleep, health, cognition, and lifestyle, equipping clinical and research settings to better support individual well-being.
