Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have recently unlocked the key to what might be contributing to a less than restful night of sleep for insomniacs nationwide.
The alpha wave is a type of brain wave that scientists previously believed was most active during periods of consciousness and became faint or disappeared completely during sleep.
According to the National Institute of Health, nearly 60 million Americans suffer from insomnia, and most people will suffer from short bouts of temporary insomnia over the course of their lives due to such factors as stress, jet lag or work schedules, such as being on a night shift. Insomnia is more common among women than men and becomes more prevalent as one ages.
Yet new studies have shown that alpha waves are present at all times, but are muted by more dominant waves when one is resting.
This becomes clear when examining an electroencephalogram (EEG), in which electrodes attached to the scalp pick up electrical activity in the brain during sleep and record them.
The activity of the alpha wave increases during periods of consciousness, as previously discussed, but in contradiction to beliefs held by many scientists, alpha waves still do occur while one is sleeping — they just tend to be overpowered by more dominant waves.
In fact, in the study performed by Scott McKinney and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital, the activity of the alpha wave was correlated with how easy it was to wake a person from sleep.
Subjects were awoken more easily by loud noises when the activity of the alpha wave was high.
Phyllis Zee of the Sleep Disorders Center at Northwestern University determined that the alpha wave serves almost as a type of protection during sleep, keeping people alert, to an extent, of their surroundings.
Yet in insomniacs, the activity of the alpha wave may never really decrease enough to allow for a restful night’s sleep.
This finding may be promising for future pharmaceutical research and a better understanding of why those who suffer from insomnia experience such poor sleep when medical testing shows otherwise.
