Sleep Resources
Insomnia: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment
Learn about the causes and types of insomnia, common symptoms, and treatment options for this sleeping disorder.
Sleep state misperception (SSM), also called paradoxical insomnia, pseudo-insomnia, or subjective insomnia, is a condition in which someone mistakenly perceives their sleep as wakefulness and as a result severely underestimates their sleep time.
This can cause sufferers to develop anxiety and depression because they mistakenly think they are suffering from insomnia.
While anyone may make these types of errors from time to time, sleep state misperception is considered a sleep disorder when the misperception becomes ingrained or chronic.
Sleep state misperception is considered to be a rare sleep disorder, though some question whether it is a disorder at all. People with SSM usually have little to no daytime impairment, unlike what is often seen in people who suffer from insomnia. Furthermore, the results of a polysomnography, or sleep study, show normal sleep patterns with no evidence of a sleep disorder.
It is believed that SSM is a type of hypochondria, and treatment often involves cognitive behavioral therapy for underlying anxiety or depression. Sedatives may be prescribed to help relieve symptoms. In some cases, having the patient understand normal sleep patterns is enough to alleviate anxiety about their perceived lack of sleep.
Conversely, there is a related condition called reverse sleep state misperception, also called positive sleep state misperception, in which people feel that they have slept much longer than they actually have.
SSM is a poorly understood sleep disorder. It is estimated that about 5% of the population suffer from sleep state misperception, and that it mostly affects young to middle-aged adults. However, the fact that people with SSM are both psychiatrically and medically healthy may indicate the condition is largely underreported.
Diagnosis of SSM is generally made based on the following three criteria:
There are a few treatments for people suffering from sleep state misperception:
Sleep state misperception is a poorly understood sleep disorder that can adversely affect quality of life. It occurs when someone mistakenly perceives their sleep as wakefulness and as a result severely underestimates their sleep time.
These individuals will complain that they suffer from insomnia when in fact they do not exhibit any symptoms of sleep deprivation. While some people may feel some nights that they didn’t get as much sleep as they actually did, SSM becomes a concern when the misperception becomes ingrained or chronic. The reassuring news is that effective treatment is available.
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