Page 80 - AN-4-4

Advanced Neurology PSG findings in young poor sleepers

Reduced REM sleep, linked to emotional regulation, findings highlight a misalignment between how these
emerged as a consistent feature in poor sleepers, suggesting individuals perceive their sleep and their physiological
a risk for subtle mood disturbances even in the absence sleep architecture. This highlights the importance of
of overt symptoms. Clinicians should therefore monitor an integrative approach to evaluating sleep complaints,
for irritability or emotional dysregulation and consider combining subjective assessments with objective measures.
integrating mindfulness, exercise, or stress-management Recognizing and addressing the objective-subjective sleep
techniques that may help restore REM sleep. discrepancy in young adults could improve therapeutic
outcomes, helping this population achieve not only
4.4. Limitations and future directions better sleep on subjective assessments but also an actual
The present study has several limitations. Its cross- improvement in their physiological sleep and overall well-
sectional design limits causal inference on whether being.
disrupted sleep architecture causes poor subjective sleep or
vice versa remains unclear. In addition, while the sample Acknowledgments
was homogeneous (healthy young males), it lacked explicit The authors would like to thank the participants for their
assessment of psychological variables such as anxiety or participation in the study.
stress, which might mediate sleep disturbances. Future
studies should incorporate standardized stress and mood Funding
assessments, as well as inventories of pre-sleep cognitive None.
activity such as rumination, to better understand the role
of hyperarousal. Conflict of interest
The reliance on published normative PSG values rather The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
than a concurrent control group is another limitation,
although mitigated by the use of age- and sex-matched Author contributions
references. Future work would benefit from recruiting Conceptualization: All authors
good-sleeper controls and including diverse demographic Formal analysis: Tarushi Tanwar, Mosab Aldabbas
groups, especially women. The modest sample size Investigation: Tarushi Tanwar, Mosab Aldabbas
also limits detection of subtle subgroup differences, Methodology: Tarushi Tanwar, Mosab Aldabbas
underscoring the need for larger, more diverse cohorts. In Writing–original draft: Tarushi Tanwar, Mosab Aldabbas
addition, while participants underwent an adaptation night Writing–review & editing: Tarushi Tanwar, Zubia Veqar
in the laboratory, naturalistic settings such as at-home PSG
or wearables may yield more ecologically valid data. Ethic approval and consent to participate
Promising future directions include interventional Before its commencement, this study was approved by
studies to test whether therapies such as CBT-I or stress- the IEC of Jamia Millia Islamia University (Proposal No.:
reduction programs can normalize sleep architecture 24/5/325/JMI/IEC/2021). Before participation, all research
and improve subjective sleep. Mechanistic investigations procedures were explained to participants, and both oral
incorporating EEG spectral power, heart rate variability, or and written informed consent were obtained in accordance
nocturnal cortisol could also clarify the role of physiological with the Declaration of Helsinki (2013).
arousal. Finally, integrating technology such as real-time
feedback from sleep trackers and personalized digital Consent for publication
interventions could provide scalable solutions for managing
sleep dissatisfaction in tech-oriented young adults. Written and oral informed consent was obtained from all
participants for the publication of their data in this article.
5. Conclusion Availability of data

This cross-sectional comparative study demonstrates that
young adult males with poor subjective sleep quality exhibit The data are not publicly available due to restrictions and
distinct objective sleep alterations when benchmarked their containing information that could compromise the
against age-matched normative values. Key differences privacy of research participants.
include shorter TST, prolonged sleep latencies, reduced References
REM sleep, and shifts toward lighter N1 sleep, changes
consistent with a state of heightened arousal, alongside an 1. Buysse DJ. Sleep health: Can we define it? Does it matter?
unexpected preservation and increase of deep N3 sleep, Sleep. 2014;37(1):9-17.
likely as a compensatory response. Notably, these objective doi: 10.5665/sleep.3298

Volume 4 Issue 4 (2025) 74 doi: 10.36922/an.8614