Sleep deprivation leads to symptoms of schizophrenia

"An international team of researchers under the guidance of the University of Bonn has now found out that after 24 hours of sleep deprivation in healthy patients, numerous symptoms were noted which are otherwise typically attributed to psychosis or schizophrenia. "It was clear to us that a sleepless night leads to impairment in the ability to concentrate," says Prof. Dr. Ulrich Ettinger of the Cognitive Psychology Unit in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bonn. "But we were surprised at how pronounced and how wide the spectrum of schizophrenia-like symptoms was."

Dr. Nadine Petrovsky and Professor Dr. Ulrich Ettinger from the Institute of Psychology of the University of Bonn measure the filtering function of the brain in a test subject (center) using the prepulse inhibition. Credit: (c) Volker Lannert/University of Bonn