Skip navigation.
Home
Last Updated: Saturday 22 November 2008 13:56 GMT | [Write for us] | [Subscribe to RSS] | [Advertise with us] [Editor's Blog]

Disturbed Sleeping Patterns Can Cause Bipolar Disorder

Disturbed Sleeping Patterns Can Cause Bipolar Disorder

Sleep is an intrinsic part of daily human activity. A good and sound sleep ensures that your heart and mind stay healthy and active. The moment our biological clock goes haywire, it can have damaging repercussions on the body. A latest research re-confirms this fact and says that the body clock can affect human mood.

Researcher Greg Murray at the Swinburne University of Technology has done a thorough study of the body clock or the circadian system and has come to the conclusion that its patterns can have a bearing on the mood of human beings.

Mood disorders such as bipolar disorder have been associated with sleep problems. This means that the circadian system does play a role in these conditions.

Bipolar disorder is basically a category of mood disorders where a person experiences one or more episodes of abnormally elevated mood. The clinical term for this is ‘mania’. A person might also experience depressive symptoms.

According to Murray, “If you take seriously this idea that the body clock is part of a casual pathway to mood disorders, then a natural deduction is that monitoring clock function might provide early warning of relapse in vulnerable people.”

The current research study basically stresses on the fact that there is a connection between the body clock and certain psychological responses. These responses include the capacity to trigger relapses in patients with bipolar disorder.

The project which was funded by the National Depressiondefine Initiative, took into account 12 volunteers with bipolar disorder. They were fitted with wrist-worn devices in order to gauge their circadian system by measuring physical activity throughout the day and night.

The volunteers were monitored for up to a year. During this period, one participant experienced a serious relapse and had to be taken to the hospital.

“For our purpose, it was very interesting that circadian activity data really did show a marked signal of deterioration in the days and even weeks before the relapse,” Murray noted.

The researchers are also working on analyzing the actigraph data to find the time scale at which rhythm disruption is most apparent.

The next stage of the research will focus on whether the signals of rhythm disruption in patients can be used as a baseline for vulnerability to bipolar disorder in general population.

( filed under: )

We appreciate your comments

Please solve the math problem above and type in the result. e.g. for 1+1, type 2
The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Subscribe to RSS Feeds Subscribe for free via email, or grab our feed.
 

Recent comments

Cancerdefine is one of the most potent diseases and claims millions of lives around the globe every year. Certain kinds of cancer typically affect women only. Here’s themedguru’s low-down on these lady-killers…

Cancers in Women

A cancerdefine is a state of abnormal growth and replication of cells in the body at a certain point. The cell division is a highly regulated process with the new cells getting formed only when the old cells die. However, this process can go off track at times with the continuous growth of new cells at a rate higher than the cell death rate. Thus, the extra cell mass is formed in a tissue or an organ which is called a tumor.

    Heart attack is one of the major causes of women’s death after breast cancerdefine and poses a great threat to women. At least one in three women dies of heart disease or stroke. The fact is that women are as much vulnerable to a heart attack as men.

    Heart-attack in Women – A Silent Killer

    While heart disease becomes significantly prevalent among women after they reach menopause, it can and does affect younger women too. According to the American Heart Association, heart disease kills about 16,000 young women and accounts for 40,000 hospitalizations in young women in U.S. every year. So, women of all ages need to become aware of it and take steps to prevent heart disease.

      Diabetes has a unique impact on the lives of adolescents and requires constant monitoring of blood sugar levels, medication and effects of food and activity. With careful management by diabetologists, nutritionists, and psychologists, and with support from parents, these young people can lead full and healthy lives.

      With proper care, adolescent diabetics can lead full and healthy lives

      The International Diabetes Federation (IDF)’s World Diabetes Day campaign focuses this year on children and adolescents with diabetes. According to IDF, children and adolescents with diabetes face a lifetime of living with a disease that poses particular challenges for them. These struggles include higher insulindefine insensitivity linked to puberty, rapid behavioural changes, increased risk of depressiondefine, anxiety, and low self-esteem and transition to adult services.