Analysis of mood change during and following sleep deprivation therapy

Abstract

To determine whether depriving endogenous human depressives of sleep for 1 night may be followed by an alleviation of their illness, hourly self-rated measurements of mood were obtained throughout the sleepless night and the time of onset of any response noted. Of the patients who improved, some did so during the day following sleep derpivation; in others the response did not occur until after the next night''s sleep. The 2 groups of responders differed in terms of self-reported emotional arousal during the course of the sleepless night. The implications for further studies of sleep deprivation therapy were discussed.