A5007124010- Sleep and related disorders
- Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Mental Health Research Topics
- Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces
- Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Mind wandering and attention
- Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Neuroscience, Education and Cognitive Function
- Physical Activity and Health
- Migration, Health and Trauma
- Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Media Influence and Health
- Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Child Abuse and Trauma
- Second Language Learning and Teaching
- Behavioral and Psychological Studies
- Resilience and Mental Health
- Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Cultural Differences and Values
University of Cape Town
2016-2025
South African Medical Research Council
2016
Abstract South Africans living in low socioeconomic areas have self-reported unusually long sleep durations (approximately 9–10 h). One hypothesis is that these may be a compensatory response to poor quality as result of stressful environments. This study aimed investigate whether fear not being safe during associated with markers or duration men and women. (n = 411, 25–50 y, 57% women) African-origin an urban township, characterised by high crime poverty rates, participated this study....
Disrupted sleep is a central feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The precise nature that disruption not agreed upon, however, and there no explanation for why disruptions are detected in some PTSD-diagnosed individuals but others. We tested the novel proposition with prominent hyperarousal symptoms will have more disrupted than those without such symptoms.We assigned each 57 female volunteers to 1 4 groups: PTSD + Hyperarousal (PTSD HYP; n = 14), - (n 13), depression or healthy...
Symptoms of sleep disturbance, particularly nightmares and insomnia, are a central feature post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Emerging evidence suggests that specific treatment PTSD‐related disturbance improves other symptoms the disorder, which in turn such may be fundamental to development maintenance disorder. This mini‐review focuses on pharmacological adult PTSD (specifically, studies testing efficacy antidepressants, adrenergic inhibiting agents, antipsychotics benzodiazepine...
During lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals have experienced poor sleep quality and regularity, changes in lifestyle behaviours, heightened depression anxiety. However, inter-relationship relative strength of those behaviours on mental health outcomes is still unknown. We collected data between 12 May 15 June 2020 from 1048 South African adults (age: 32.76 ± 14.43 years; n = 767 female; 473 students) using an online questionnaire. Using structural equation modelling,...
Background: Dreaming is a universal experience, yet there considerable inter-individual variability in dream recall frequency (DRF). One dominant model, the 'arousal-retrieval' posits that intra-sleep wakefulness required for traces to be encoded into long-term storage, essentially proposing better memory dreams underlie increased DRF. A recent study utilizing polysomnography combined with an event-related potentials paradigm, provides support this model by demonstrating healthy population...
Background: Both post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex (CPTSD) have been included in the 11th edition of International Classification Diseases (ICD-11). Although validity CPTSD has controversial, a growing number studies support distinction between PTSD CPTSD. However, majority this research originated high-income countries (HICs), whereas prevalence trauma experience associated with PTSD/CPTSD diagnosis is significantly higher low- middle-income (LMICs). Objective: This study...
Although individuals diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) regularly report subjective sleep disruption, many studies using objective measures (e.g., polysomnography) no PTSD-related disruption. To account for these inconsistencies, some authors hypothesize that PTSD-diagnosed have sleep-state misperception; is, they self-report experiencing poor quality, but objectively relatively normally. We tested this misperception hypothesis, collecting data on subjectively-reported...
Summary Successful memory consolidation during sleep depends on healthy slow‐wave and rapid eye movement sleep, successful transition across stages. In post‐traumatic stress disorder, is disrupted impaired, but relations between these two variables in the psychiatric condition remain unexplored. We examined whether consequent consolidation, a mechanism underlying declarative deficits disorder. recruited three matched groups of participants: disorder ( n = 16); trauma‐exposed...
The sleep-to-forget, sleep-to-remember (SFSR) hypothesis states that the neurobiological environment provided by rapid-eye movement (REM)-rich sleep decouples content of an emotional memory from its attendant arousal. This decoupling allows divergent attenuation and enhancement effects (i.e., erosion memory's tone simultaneous strengthening content). However, support for this proposal is mixed. An alternative account suggests there might be convergent elevated arousal positively coupled with...
Background : The authors assessed the impact of lockdown in response to COVID-19 pandemic on routine-oriented lifestyle behaviors and symptoms depression, anxiety, insomnia South Africans. Methods In this observational study, 1048 adults (median age = 27 y; n 767 females; 473 students) responded an online survey work, exercise, screen, alcohol, caffeine sleep behaviors, before during lockdown. Comparisons were made between males females, students nonstudents. Results During lockdown,...
Background : Improving sleep quality and reducing depressive symptoms may be target mechanisms for intervention-based research aimed at cardiometabolic risk in low-income communities. This study assessed the effects of exercise training on obese women a low socioeconomic community. The secondary aim explored associations between changes with cardiorespiratory fitness factors. Methods Participants were randomized into (n = 20) or control 15) groups. group completed 12 weeks combined...
Abstract Objective Features of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) typically include sleep disturbances, impaired declarative memory, and hyperarousal. This study evaluated whether these combined features may accurately delineate pathophysiological changes associated with PTSD. Method We recruited a cohort PTSD‐diagnosed individuals ( N = 20), trauma survivors without PTSD (TE; healthy controls (HC; 20). Analyses between‐group differences support vector machine (SVM)‐learning were applied...
Individuals with substance use disorders exhibit maladaptive decision-making on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), which involves selecting from card decks differing in magnitudes of rewards, and frequency magnitude losses. We investigated whether baseline IGT performance could predict responses to contingency management (CM) by treatment-seeking individuals methamphetamine disorder (MA Use Disorder) Cape Town, South Africa.Twenty-nine MA Disorder underwent an 8-week, escalating reinforcement,...
Previous studies in the neuroscience and psychology literature works suggest that poor sleep quality is associated with emotion dysregulation, dysregulation are, independently, presence severity of psychiatric symptoms. However, no previous study has examined simultaneous relations among multiple different regulation strategies, quality, mental health outcomes. Such investigations are particularly important given extensive describing prevalence manifestation outcomes university students....
Traditionally, emotions in dreams have been assessed using subjective ratings by human raters (e.g., external or dreamers themselves). These methods extensive support and utility dream science, yet they certain innate limitations due to the nature of rating methodologies. Attempting circumvent several these limitations, we aimed develop a novel method for objectively classifying quantifying sequential (word-for-word) emotion within report. We investigated whether sentiment analysis, branch...
Abstract Individuals diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience disruption at both slow‐wave sleep (SWS) and rapid‐eye movement (REM) stages demonstrate marked memory impairment. A small group of studies suggests that, within the disorder, there is a mechanistic relation between these impairments. This study sought to extend that literature by examining whether, in PTSD‐diagnosed individuals, memory‐retention deficits are present after sleep‐filled (but not wake‐filled)...
The cognitive construct of prospective memory (PM) refers to the capacity encode, retain, and execute delayed intentions (e.g., remember buy milk on way home). Although previous research suggests PM performance is enhanced by healthy sleep, conclusions tend be drawn based designs featuring ecologically unnatural manipulations total sleep deprivation). This study investigates whether a more common everyday experience (bedtime stress) affects next-day performance, in so doing also contributes...