Ricerc@Sapienza

We have entered an era of a steep increase in the absolute and relative number of older
people. This well-come phenomenon represents a major challenge for health care. However, maturational
changes in sleep associated with aging do not easily appear as main factors, even though
sleep alterations in the aging process lead to many detrimental consequences. In this editorial paper,
we summarize the present knowledge about the main aging-related sleep modifications and their

Hospital staff are at the frontline in the COVID-19 outbreak. The stressors they ex- perience may induce sleep problems in a population already at risk. Sleep depriva- tion, long shifts and insomnia in hospital staff have been associated with individual, organizational and public health hazards. These include increased risk of mental and somatic disorders, altered immune responses, medical errors, misunderstand- ings, drowsy driving and burnout.

Several cognitive mechanisms have been hypothesized to be involved in insomnia disorder. Insomnia catastrophising thinking consists of overestimating the sleep disturbance and the related daytime impairment. The present study aimed to develop and assess the psychometric properties of the Italian adaptation of the Insomnia Catastrophising Scale (ICS) in a sample of 434 university students. The ICS is a self-report tool assessing catastrophic thoughts related to nighttime (ICS-N) and daytime symptoms of insomnia (ICS-D).

Background and objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of a partial sleep depri- vation night on executive functions in participants reporting chronic insomnia and good sleepers using a Task Switching paradigm. Methods: Sixteen participants reporting symptoms of chronic insomnia and sixteen good sleepers were tested after a night of habitual sleep and after a night of partial sleep deprivation (5 h of sleep allowed). The Switch Cost (SC) and the Backward Inhibition (BI) were computed as measures of switching attention and response inhibition, respectively.

Perseverative cognition (PC), that is, the continuous cognitive representation of uncontrollable threats, is known to dampen executive control processes in experimental paradigms. Similarly, PC has been shown to impair sleep and to be implicated in the exacerbation of insomnia, which may in turn contribute to the disruption of executive functions. The interactions between PC and insomnia in influencing executive functions, however, have never been tested to date.

Background: Experimental studies consistently demonstrate that acute sleep depri- vation increases food consumption. Moreover, epidemiological studies and meta- analyses show that children with short sleep have twice the probability of suffering from obesity than normal sleepers. Similar results are reported in adolescents, while in adults' results are heterogeneous. Habitual sleep patterns, however, have not been taken into account to date, yet they may explain this heterogeneity.

Pre-sleep cognitive intrusions about next-day activities, or proprioceptive and environmental stimuli are thought to trigger insomnia in neurocognitive models. Recent research showed that intrusive cognitions at bedtime may interact with sleep in influencing next-day emotional functioning; their effects on cognitive functioning, however, is largely unknown. We tested the effects of pre-sleep cognitive intrusions on subjective sleep and next-day cognitive performance in 80 participants, either with chronic insomnia or good sleepers.

This review aimed to assess the impact of behavioural therapy for insomnia administered alone (BT-I) or in combination with cognitive techniques (cognitive-behavioural therapy for insomnia, CBT-I) on depressive and fatigue symptoms using network meta-analysis. PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science were searched from 1986 to May 2015. Studies were included if they incorporated sleep restriction, a core technique of BT-I treatment, and an adult insomnia sample, a control group and a standardised measure of depressive and/or fatigue symptoms.

Background: Executive functions (EFs) are involved in the control of basic psychological processes such as attention and memory and also contribute to emotion regulation. Research on the presence of EFs impairments in insomnia yielded inconsistent results. Therefore, we performed a systematic review of the literature on three EFs: inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility in adults with insomnia in order to investigate the presence and magnitude of insomnia-related EFs impairments.

Insomnia, the most prevalent sleep disorder worldwide, confers marked risks for both physical and mental health. Furthermore, insomnia is associated with considerable direct and indirect healthcare costs. Recent guidelines in the US and Europe unequivocally conclude that cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) should be the first-line treatment for the disorder. Current treatment approaches are in stark contrast to these clear recommendations, not least across Europe, where, if any treatment at all is delivered, hypnotic medication still is the dominant therapeutic modality.