Sleep state misperception in psychiatric patients. Aetiological and epidemiological observations at the Bundeswehr Hospital of Hamburg

This study assessed the phenomenon of sleep state misperception with regard to its prevalence and potential causes. For this purpose, 255 Bundeswehr soldiers who were admitted as psychiatric patients with sleep disorders were examined at the Bundeswehr Hospital of Hamburg. The symptoms of sleep state misperception are a consistently negative subjective appraisal of one’s own sleep. Objective measurements using electroencephalography (EEG), however, suggest the opposite, namely that sleep is objectively undisturbed. This discrepancy was seen in 52% of the examined patients in an assessment of eight empirical criteria for objectively healthy sleep. The results of a logistic regression analysis to determine predictors of the symptoms did not allow conclusions to be drawn about possible links between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depressive disorders and sleep state misperception. Only the existence of substance use disorders was a significant negative predictor for suffering from sleep state misperception.