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The Sleep Deprivation Psychosis

The Sleep Deprivation Psychosis

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Our urban and suburban lives have changed us so much that we are sleeping less and less. That is leading us to have less and less sleep, which doesn’t bode well for us. As sleep deprivation becomes more of a raging problem in our lives, so do the associated problems. One of these problems is sleep deprivation psychosis. It should not be taken lightly, and this is exactly why we are going to discuss psychosis from sleep deprivation in brief detail through the words below:

 

Defining Psychosis

 

Psychosis is not a mental illness but more of a prominent symptom of many different types of mental health problems, which is predominantly seen in schizophrenia. Psychosis is characterized by two of its most defining features, namely delusions and hallucinations. Both of these can be debilitating and can have negative effects on the affected individual. Let’s discuss this a bit more so we can properly understand sleep deprivation psychosis later.

 

Hallucinations are a type of positive symptom (as seen in schizophrenia), which means they essentially add to the experience of the affected individual because when one is going through these, that individual can see, hear, and feel things and people physically even though they are not there, essentially adding to the experience. Delusions, on the other hand, do not add anything to the experience but are more on the debilitating side and more so than hallucinations because these just give people the sub-symptoms of grandiose thinking and fixed beliefs that conflict with actual reality. By looking at these symptoms, we can say that psychosis means loss of contact with reality.

Hallucinations and delusions may be psychosis’ defining features but are not the only symptoms that it can induce. You may able to recognize if someone has psychosis or not by looking at these symptoms:

 

  • Undercooked cognitive processes
  • Spontaneous drops in work and educational performance
  • Communication issues and social anxiety disorder
  • Paranoia and being suspicious of others for one reason or another
  • Sudden decline in proper hygiene and self-care
  • Declining sleep patterns, which often lead to sleep issues such as insomnia
  • Increasingly strange, new feelings, or no feeling at all, which at times can also lead to depression
  • Disorganized speech and behavior

 

Psychosis can be the result of certain mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder and may come along due to other types of symptoms, for example, sleep deprivation psychosis. And in the next section, we’ll be focusing on exactly that in the next section.

 

What is Sleep Deprivation Psychosis?

Now that you know what psychosis essentially is, let’s talk about one of its subtypes – sleep deprivation psychosis. Sleep deprivation psychosis, as the name suggests, is the variation of psychosis that is caused by a literal lack of sleep or extremely low-quality sleep. When a person lacks proper sleep or has a bad pattern of sleep, it leads to sleep deprivation.

 

Sleep is an important part of our lives and it helps us rejuvenate our bodies in considerable ways. Sleep deprivation often leads to impairment of the immune system, significant drop in work or school performance, poor efficiency of the cognitive processes, decreasing libido, depression, cardiac issues, high blood pressure, and obesity, all of which are highly critical for people who are afflicted with these. In addition, to these sleep deprivation psychosis symptoms, a bit of an uncommon outcome exists that is as critical as the symptoms we just described above, which is psychosis.

 

Your symptoms of psychosis from sleep deprivation start when you haven’t been able to sleep for at least 24 hours. Gradually, things like irritability, anxiety, and a sense of being disconnected from your thoughts and feelings start to erupt. When at least 48 hours have elapsed, symptoms that are directly related to psychosis begin to arise, for example, hallucinations and delusions. A 2018 review evidenced this phenomenon by looking at the 21 articles that correlated the finding of time spent without any sleep and symptoms of psychosis (Waters et al, 2018).

 

Additionally, the longer an affected individual is deprived of sleep, the longer the symptoms of sleep psychosis are going to stay, even becoming permanent in the long run, making prompt treatment a necessity. On top of it, sleep deprivation and psychosis is the type of concoction that can often lead to more complex sleep deprivation psychosis symptoms such as:

 

  • Simple hallucinations
  • Simple delusions
  • Disorganized thinking and behavior such as showing anger and hostility
  • Disturbed eating behaviors, which can lead to an eating disorder, have been widely reported in psychotic disorders (Stogios et al, 2020).
  • Apathy
  • Euphoria
  • Disorientation

 

These sleep deprivation psychosis symptoms get more complex and develop into things much worse if one hasn’t slept for at least 72 hours:

 

  • Complex hallucinations
  • Intricate delusions
  • Can lead to or co-occur with mood disorders such as bipolar (Gaughran, 2024)
  • Extreme bouts of aggression

 

Types of Sleep Deprivation Psychosis

Sleep deprivation psychosis can be classified into three different variations – acute sleep deprivation, chronic sleep deprivation, or chronic sleep deficiency. Let’s all talk about these types of sleep-deprived psychosis:

 

Acute sleep deprivation: This one is present for a short period of time and happens due to the small changes to the sleep patterns of an affected individual.

 

Chronic sleep deprivation: This happens when an affected person’s sleep pattern has been impacted for more than 3 months or so, as suggested by the American Sleep Academy.

 

Chronic sleep deficiency: This is a total lack of or extremely poor sleep which can happen due to a range of different reasons and goes on for months or even years.

 

What Causes Sleep Deprivation Psychosis?

 

You shouldn’t be just asking a question like, “Can sleep deprivation cause psychosis?” as the underlying causes of sleep deprivation psychosis are variable:

 

  • Poor sleep hygiene due to reasons such as loud noises, irregular bedtimes, extreme temperatures, excessive caffeine intake, and sedentary lifestyle
  • Lifestyle choices such as living a hedonistic life. It could also be something simple like staying up late or scrolling through your smartphone for an extended time, which essentially ruins your sleep patterns by inducing chemical changes in your brain
  • Non-existent work/life balance: If you have been spending a lot of time at your office and you are an extremist workaholic, it is going to impact your sleep
  • Sleep disorders such as insomnia (disorder of no sleep) or sleep apnea (breathing problems during sleep) also contribute to sleep deprivation psychosis
  • Other mental and medical conditions such as OCD and breathing disorders, respectively can also lead to problems in sleep and eventually to psychosis.

 

Sleep Deprivation Psychosis Treatment

Now, you must be wondering if there are any sleep deprivation psychosis treatment options available. There are actually. These range from positive lifestyle choices to medication.

 

Medication

Predominantly, antipsychotic medications are used to treat psychosis and can be used for sleep deprivation psychosis too. Sleep medications also tend to be available but they should be relied upon in the long run as they are dangerous. A proper way to go about this is psychiatric medication management, which is a monitored version of medication by an expert.

 

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

It is a type of psychotherapy that can help with treating both sleep deprivation-induced psychosis and sleep deprivation itself because it can help people look inward into their problematic behaviors that tend to stem from deteriorating mental health issues.

 

Positive lifestyle changes

Incorporating changes such as regular exercise and a balanced diet can contribute to healthier sleep. That can in turn help you get rid of the psychotic symptoms.

 

Conclusion

Now you know what essentially is sleep deprivation psychosis. You also know how it can be treated and what are the variable symptoms of sleep deprivation psychosis. If you want to get it treated, Orange Coast Psychiatry has a range of different treatment options available including but not limited to options such as telehealth psychiatry. We are waiting for your appointment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sleep disturbances, such as insomnia, are commonly reported by individuals with chronic psychosis.

No! However, it can lead to similar symptoms of psychosis, which is similar to schizophrenia. 

It typically tends not to be permanent.

Reference and Footnotes
  1. Waters F, Chiu V, Atkinson A, Blom JD. Severe Sleep Deprivation Causes Hallucinations and a Gradual Progression Toward Psychosis With Increasing Time Awake. Front Psychiatry. 2018 Jul 10;9:303. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00303. PMID: 30042701; PMCID: PMC6048360.
  2. Stogios N, Smith E, Asgariroozbehani R, Hamel L, Gdanski A, Selby P, Sockalingam S, Graff-Guerrero A, Taylor VH, Agarwal SM, Hahn MK. Exploring Patterns of Disturbed Eating in Psychosis: A Scoping Review. Nutrients. 2020 Dec 18;12(12):3883. doi: 10.3390/nu12123883. PMID: 33353080; PMCID: PMC7768542.
  3. Gaughran F. Mood and Psychosis: Limits and Overlapping between Psychotic Disorders and Mood Disorders. In: Young A, Sanches M, Soares JC, Juruena M, eds. Clinical Textbook of Mood Disorders. Cambridge University Press; 2024:82-94.

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