--- title: Why Interrupted Sleep Is Worse Than Short Sleep description: When they compared which is worse, researchers found some striking effects on mood canonical: https://time.com/4094734/interrupted-sleep-mood/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-30T19:00:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:39:44.243Z article:section: Health og:title: Why Interrupted Sleep Is Worse Than Short Sleep og:description: When they compared which is worse, researchers found some striking effects on mood og:url: https://time.com/4094734/interrupted-sleep-mood/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4249ceadfa43ebcf/69886f26cf40a8167fc40730/sleep-study-pillow.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4288 og:image:height: 2412 og:image:alt: Sleep-Study-Pillow og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Interrupted Sleep Is Worse Than Short Sleep twitter:description: When they compared which is worse, researchers found some striking effects on mood twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4249ceadfa43ebcf/69886f26cf40a8167fc40730/sleep-study-pillow.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Interrupted Sleep Is Worse Than Short Sleep > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=d2670a34-d33e-4620-9afe-cec25e1145e5&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Experts Think Young Children Should Get More Sleep [Watch (HLS stream): Experts Think Young Children Should Get More Sleep](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IaueniAO.m3u8) (1:41)  _Published 2015-02-05. The National Sleep foundation compiled an 18-person panel of scientists and asked them to review 300 studies on how much sleep different age groups should get. Here are the results._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Oct 30, 2015 7:00 PM UTC The National Sleep foundation compiled an 18-person panel of scientists and asked them to review 300 studies on how much sleep different age groups should get. Here are the results.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Oct 30, 2015 7:00 PM UTC We’re a nation of unhealthy sleepers. Ten percent of us are insomniacs, many more wake up constantly throughout the night and a growing number are simply too enthralled with our smartphones to put them down and go to bed. But what’s the worst kind of sleep for your health: the kind where you keep a normal bedtime but are constantly up every few hours, or the kind where you go to bed late and only get a few hours of shut-eye? Scientists might finally have an answer. Reporting in the journal _Sleep_, lead author Patrick Finan, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and his colleagues conducted one of the first studies comparing the two types of sleep—interrupted sleep and abbreviated sleep—in a group of 62 healthy men and women who were good sleepers. The participants spent three days and nights in a sleep lab and answered questions about their mood every evening before dozing off. While they slept, the researchers measured their sleep stages so they could document when and how much of each stage of sleep, from light to deeper slumber, each volunteer got every night. A third were randomly assigned to be woken up several times a night, another third were not allowed to go to sleep until later but weren’t woken up, and the final group, which acted as the control, was allowed to sleep uninterrupted through the night. When Finan compared the three groups’ mood ratings, he found that the interrupted and short sleepers both showed drops in positive mood after the first night. But on the next nights, the interrupted sleepers continued to report declining positive feelings while the short sleepers did not—they stayed at about the same level they had reported after the first night. This drop in positive mood occurred regardless of what the participants reported on the negative mood scale. So having disrupted sleep, says Finan, may have a stronger effect on dampening positive mood than it does on increasing negative emotions. When he looked at the brain patterns of the two disrupted sleep groups, he found that those who woke up repeatedly showed less slow wave sleep, or the deep sleep that is normally linked to feeling restored and rested, than those getting the same amount of sleep but in a continuous session. “We saw a drop in slow wave sleep so large and sudden, and it was associated with a striking drop in positive mood that was significantly different than in the other group,” he says. ### You Asked: Your Top 10 Health Questions Answered  You Asked: Are Cleanses Healthy? Potions that claim to clear your body of toxins might sound alluring, but do they deliver? Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Eating Dessert Really That Bad For Me? Bad news for sweet-eaters—except if you end your meals with this kind of treat. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: What’s the Best Way to Whiten My Teeth? Yes, teeth whitening actually works—but here's why you have to dish out major bucks to see results. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Meditation Really Worth It? From easing stress to lowering heart disease risk, focusing your mind can do some amazing things for your body. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: What’s the Healthiest Sweetener? Take a taste of the unsettled science of sweeteners. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Should I Go Paleo? The pros and cons of eating like a caveman. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Cracking Your Knuckles Bad? Here's what really happens to your joints when you snap, crackle and pop. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Running on a Treadmill as Good as Running Outside? You'll fool your body into thinking it's outside with this one small treadmill tweak. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Does Laughing Have Real Health Benefits? Here's proof that everybody could use a belly laugh. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: What Is My Poo Telling Me? If you listen hard enough, you'll hear all kinds of health stories from #2. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME That has implications for how everything from stress to depression can affect both sleep and mood. Previous data linked poor sleep and depression, and Finan says it may be worth delving deeper into understanding whether depression is associated with more interrupted sleep or shorter sleep. It’s also not clear whether there is some threshold at which too little sleep begins to adversely affect positive mood in the same way that disrupted sleep does. “It appears that losing slow wave sleep impairs the ability to recover or stabilize positive emotions in response to stressors,” he says. “So we should be paying attention to not just the quantity or quality of sleep, and not simply the quantity or quality of mood or emotions, but the combination of the two. It’s not news that sleep problems alter people’s mood. But the granularity we measured here sheds new light on that relationship.” You can’t avoid the demands of juggling your work and family obligations, and the inevitable stresses that any relationship entails, but you just might be able to lessen the blow with sleep—as long as it’s uninterrupted. ## Transcript [00:00] [ MUSIC ] [00:09] Getting quality sleep is easier said than done. When it [00:11] comes to sleep, should we be going for eight hours? [00:13] The need to sleep is one of the strongest biological [00:15] urges we have. [ MUSIC ] And [00:21] finally he was [ UNKNOWN ] increased death. People [00:24] work shift jobs who are unable to get into a certainium [00:28] rhythm of normal sleep have a higher mortality rate. [00:30] [ MUSIC ] Sleep [00:35] isn't lost time, or just a way to rest when all our [00:38] important work is done. Instead, it's a critical function, [00:42] during which your body balances and regulates it's [00:45] vital systems. 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