Poor sleep can accompany schizophrenia
By Janet Raloff
The body’s internal biological clock coordinates a host of rhythms—from hormone production to sleep-wake times—on about a 24-hour cycle. Although everyone’s clock tends to run a little fast or slow, sunlight usually resets it. In people with schizophrenia, however, this clock can be seriously broken, a preliminary study finds.
Russell Foster of the University of Oxford in England and his colleagues strapped wristwatch-style activity monitors onto 14 volunteers with schizophrenia. They didn’t hold jobs or otherwise have to wake up at a specific time each day. The team also monitored an equal number of healthy unemployed people. The neuroscientists recorded each subject’s activity and rest cycles for up to 3 years.