A person who does not sleep for more than a day may have symptoms of schizophrenia. This conclusion was made by an international group of scientists led by King’s College and University of Bonn in London.
According to scientists, it is no secret that a sleepless night lowers concentration. “But we were more surprised by how pronounced and how wide the spectrum of symptoms that resemble schizophrenia,” said one of the authors of the study, Professor Ulrich Oettinger from the University of Bonn.
24 volunteers aged 18 to 40 years were invited to participate in the study. At the first stage of the experiment, the participants in the experiment were allowed to sleep in the laboratory in the usual way. After about a week, the subjects had to stay awake all night. Throughout the night, they were allowed to watch movies, play, chat with each other and take short walks. With the onset of the morning, the participants in the experiment were asked to tell about their feelings and thoughts. In addition, to evaluate the ability of the brain to filter information, they were evaluated for pre-pulse inhibition.
It turns out that after a sleepless night, the filtering functions were significantly reduced. The attention deficit that is inherent in schizophrenics was clearly expressed. In addition, during the survey, participants revealed a slightly increased sensitivity to light, brightness, or color. They also changed their sense of time and sense of smell.