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Sleepless night develops symptoms of schizophrenia
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Experts have long determined that a sleepless night leads to decreased attention, but the latest work by international experts led by two London universities has shown that a day without sleep can provoke symptoms of schizophrenia in a person. The scientists themselves were extremely surprised by the severity and breadth of symptoms resembling schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a severe form of mental disorder that affects a person's consciousness and behavior (thought processes, emotions, perception, motor activity, etc.). With schizophrenia, a person often experiences impaired thinking and incorrect perception of what is happening.
As a result of the research, scientists found that a person who has not slept for more than a day develops symptoms characteristic of schizophrenia.
For their study, the specialists invited volunteers aged 18 to 40. A total of 24 people took part in the experiment. At the initial stage, all participants had to sleep as usual, but only in the laboratory. A week later, the scientists set the participants the task of staying awake all night. The volunteers could watch movies, play games, take walks, and talk to each other. In the morning, the participants had to tell the specialists about their thoughts and feelings; in addition, the scientists assessed the brain's information filtering function (the ability to avoid sensory overload and highlight what is important) using pre-pulse inhibition.
As a result, the scientists determined that a sleepless night leads to the brain performing its filtering function worse, while a pronounced attention deficit was observed, which occurs in schizophrenia. Also, after interviewing the participants, the specialists found out that there was an increased sensitivity to light, colors or brightness, and the sense of smell and time perception also changed.
Experts name many reasons for insomnia, but in recent studies, scientists have determined that the brains of people suffering from insomnia are structured differently. As scientists believe, excessive daytime activity of the brain leads to the fact that at night a person cannot fall asleep.
In their experiments, the experts examined about 30 people over fifty years old, 18 of whom had been suffering from insomnia for a year or more, while the rest considered their sleep to be quite sound.
The experts measured the volunteers' brain plasticity by stimulating the motor cortex. At the same time, the scientists monitored the involuntary movements of the thumbs. After that, the participants had to move their thumb in the opposite direction from the involuntary one, and the experts repeated the stimulation.
As a result, scientists determined that people with less motor cortex plasticity were able to move in the opposite direction from the involuntary movement, which completely contradicted the scientists' expectations. At the same time, people suffering from insomnia had higher brain activity and were able to cope with the goal set before them more easily. But experts believe that such people will not cope with a more complex task.
Increased brain activity will not be able to compensate for sleep deficit, and sleep is extremely important for brain plasticity. It follows that sleep deficit leads to a decrease in brain plasticity. But at this stage, scientists cannot say for sure whether high brain activity is to blame for insomnia, or insomnia provokes increased brain activity.
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