Can Sleep Make Brain Shrinkage

Effects of Insomnia increasingly endanger health. Not only can reduce your stamina, sleep disorders can also shrink the brain. For the first time, through brain imaging research has linked insomnia with a decrease in gray matter. The test results showed that those who often experience chronic sleep disorders have a density of gray matter was lower in the brain regions that are used to make decisions.

"These findings predict that chronic insomnia is likely to compromise the ability to assess the stimulus," said Dr. Ellemarije Altena, researchers from the University of Cambridge. "This could be a consequence for any other thought process, especially in decision making," he added, as quoted from www.telegraph.co.uk. Insomnia is a general description of almost all psychiatric conditions associated with reduced gray matter. Researchers already know that insomnia is disturbing how the brain works, but this research explains why the damage occurred. This research was conducted Dr. Ellemarije and his team by comparing the brains of patients with chronic insomnia who have a normal sleep. Patients with chronic insomnia showed a reduction greater density, regardless of how long they suffer from this disorder.

"We can not say what comes first, the density of the gray area is reduced in people with insomnia. However, the data showed that low density in orbitofrontal gray may be the tendency of risk factors a person has insomnia," he explained. The research was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, only focusing on the elderly, because it required further research to determine whether the brain due to insomnia mengecilnya can occur at any age.