Journal of Sleep Sciences
Volume:4 Issue: 1, Winter-Spring 2019

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease, which results in numerous medical problems, as well as psychological symptoms such as anxiety, low sleep quality, and fatigue. These problems usually result in deteriora-tion of clinical symptoms and low efficacy of the patients. The current study investigated the effectiveness of mindfulness-integrated cognitive-behavioral therapy (MICBT) on sleep quality, anxiety, and fatigue in patients with MS.

Twenty patients with MS were randomly assigned to MICBT or control groups. Data collec-tion tools were Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). Measurements were performed in three stages including before the intervention, after the end of the intervention, and in a follow-up phase. One-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed with SPSS to compare the results between the two groups.

A significant reduction in anxiety (d = 0.62) and fatigue (d = 0.56) and a significant increase in sleep quality (d = 0.56) were observed in the experimental group compared to the control group (P < 0.05). The results also were kept in follow-up phase.

MICBT is effective on the anxiety, sleep quality, and fatigue in patients with MS. As a result, mental health professionals can take advantage of this treatment to address the psychological problems of these patients.

One of the causes of the human death is the road crashes due to the driver drowsiness or falling asleep. Thermography is one of new techniques for non-invasive automatic detection of driver drowsiness, which could help to prevent sleep-related road accidents. In this research, we aimed to record the temperature of the thyroid gland when a person is awake, drowsy, or starts to fall asleep.

For capturing the neck’s thermogram, a human thermal video recording was designed. The imaging procedure consisted of the attended cases’ preparation, capturing static thermal video of the neck, and analyz-ing the resultant thermal videos with a particular image-processing algorithm for extracting the temperature data. The image-processing algorithm consisted of image segmentation, noise reduction, and specification of the region of interest for recording the thyroid temperature.

In the wakefulness, a region of the skin, which is in the front of thyroid gland, had an average temperature of 34.5 ± 0.3C. A change from being awake to being drowsy and falling asleep reduced the average temperature of the neck area to 33.5 ± 0.2 C and 32.5 ± 0.1C, respectively.

A change from being awake to being drowsy and falling asleep reduces the temperature of the thyroid gland and the neck skin which is located in front of the thyroid gland. By knowing such temperature reduction, a non-invasive system for detection of the person drowsiness or falling asleep can be developed by means of the infrared thermography (IRT).

Sleep and sleep-related indices can be altered in substance users especially methamphet-amine and opioid users. Studies have shown that sleep in substance users does not change uniformly. The aim of this study was to compare sleep and related indices in patients with opium and methamphetamine addiction.

In this descriptive study, 143 opium and methamphetamine addicts who referred to four ad-diction treatment clinics in Kermanshah, Iran, in 2018-2019, were evaluated by four sleep questionnaires including Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and Berlin Questionnaire (BQ).

There was a significant difference between the two groups in the number of female participants, age of partici-pants, education level, and years of substance use (P < 0.05). Patients with opium addiction, compared to methamphet-amine users, had a poorer sleep quality, symptoms of insomnia, and sleepiness in everyday situations.

The type of substance can affect the type of sleep problems experienced by individuals. Interventions in the fu-ture should be tailored to personalized problems of sleep, depending on the type of substance (opium or methamphetamine).

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has become a highly prevalent condition in pediatric care. OSA in children might considerably impact children’s quality of life. We aimed to evaluate sleep disorders in children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy.

This was a descriptive-analytical and questionnaire-based study of children with adenotonsil-lar hypertrophy referring to otolaryngology clinic at Qazvin Children Hospital, Iran, in 2018-2019. 181 children who were randomly selected from the referral hospitals were evaluated using the validated Persian version of the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ). Eight main branches were also completed by the parents and how they evaluated the last week sleep patterns of their children.

A total of 120 completed questionnaires were collected from children aged 1 to 15 years. 52.5% were male and 76.7% were urban residents. 88.8% had snoring and 90.0% had no family history of insomnia. 76.3% fell asleep in the morning, 74.3% had moderate to severe bedtime resistance according to the parents’ reports, and 60.0% had mild and 22.5% had severe sleep onset delay. Finally, 107 children had confirmed sleep disorder that figures 89.2% of the cases included in the study.

Our study showed a high prevalence of sleep disorders in our cases and its effects on behavioral disorders. Children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy had less sleep duration and more sleep disorder as parents reported in present study. Further studies are highly recommended to understand the etiology of sleep disorders in studied population.

Insomnia is one of the most prevalent sleep-related problems among university students. To date, several explanatory models for insomnia have been presented; however, the perspective of procrastination has been less considered. The present study's aim was to determine the association between procrastinatory cognitions and bedtime procrastination, and insomnia among students.

The present study was a cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of students of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran. A total of 433 students were selected using stratified random sam-pling method. Data were collected using the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Bedtime Procrastination Scale (BTPS), and Procrastinatory Cognitions Inventory (PCI).

The severity of insomnia in medical students varied from non-clinical to clinical insomnia. In addition, the results of regression analysis indicated that the full model was significant regarding the predictors of insomnia. Only 3% of variance in insomnia severity was due to demographic variables, while bedtime procrastination and procrastina-tory cognitions explained 33% of the variance in the severity of insomnia among students.

The procrastination-related structures such as procrastinatory cognitions and bedtime procrastination play an important role in explaining insomnia in students. Addressing these variables as perpetuating factors can be consid-ered in the treatment of insomnia in students.

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to perceive emotions in oneself and others. Studies indicate that there might be a relationship between emotional intelligence and sleep. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between emotional intelligence with components of students' sleep quality.

In this cross-sectional study, 377 students affiliated to Ferdowsi University in Mashhad, Iran, were selected and evaluated by two questionnaires of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) after obtaining participants’ consent.

The prevalence of poor sleep was nearly 61% in students. The highest level of correlation was observed after total sleep quality, with sleep disturbances and subjective sleep quality, respectively. The lowest level of non-significant correla-tion was observed with sleep duration (P > 0.05). Regulation, appraisal, and utilization of emotions were the most empow-erment strategies in emotional intelligence among students.

The optimal sleep quality can be related to higher emotional intelligence. Amongst the two sleep quality components, the total sleep quality had a stronger relationship with emotional intelligence. It may be inferred that to increase student productivity, emotion-focused psychological interventions should focus on utilization, appraisal, and regulation of emotions.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is considered as a chronic disabling psychiatric disease with poor response to pharmacological treatments. The poor understanding of mechanistic links between psy-chiatric diagnoses and sleep abnormalities contributes to the lack of certainty; a clarification of its relationship with dream content seems interesting.

The case was a 37-year-old Iranian woman with OCD. The dreams with obsessive content had begun almost two months before the recurrence of the clinical symptoms. As she got closer to the time of the relapse of clini-cal symptoms, she had more frequent and longer dreams with content of washing; treatment began with clomipramine. Recurrence of the next episode also started with dreams. After the last episode, she continued her medication and cur-rently she is symptom-free for the past two years.

The correlation of the dreams' content and clinical symptoms of OCD can be a clue for early diagnosis of symptoms and helps prevent clinical symptoms. However, we cannot neglect the effects of the disorder on brain func-tion and sleep structure.

Various types of abnormal movements such as pain, cramp, jerk, creeping, or itching may occur during sleep, many of which often involve the legs. In this study, we reported a case of periodic limb movement in sleep (PLMS) in the setting of a neurological disease.

We report a patient with involuntary left leg movements during sleep. The patient developed this prob-lem after an ischemic brain stroke that involved right temporal and basal ganglia. The patient underwent an overnight polysomnography (PSG) for the diagnosis of PLMS.

Although we do not know the exact pathogenesis of PLMS, it has been proposed that the brain lesions might cause PLMS. The present case provided evidence to support that brain lesions could be considered as a cause of unilateral PLMS.