The Impact of Attentive System on Sleep Reactivity

Sleep Reactivity is defined as the degree to which a given amount of stress disrupts the sleep system, and it is consistent over time and across different type of stimuli. Sleep reactivity is a normal phenomenon under a certain threshold, but when it exceeds physiological threshold, this can lead to sleep disturbances that persist even following the removal of the stressor. Indeed, higher levels of sleep reactivity are associated to sleep quality depletion (i.e., increased sleep latency, reduced sleep efficiency and increased sleep fragmentation). The contribution of sleep reactivity in insomnia could be also related to altered (rapid eyes movement (REM)) REM sleep, since it plays a fundamental role in the elaboration of emotional and stressful stimuli, promoting a readjustment of the cognitive-emotional system. Hence, an alteration of REM after a stressor may prevent its proper processing and promote the disorder.

In order to, investigate this relationship this project aims to manipulate sleep reactivity to assess the differences between insomniacs and healthy controls, taking into account their attentional shifting performance and focusing on non-REM and REM sleep alterations.