The Relationships Between Sleep Patterns and Reactive and Endogenous Depressions

¹ Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, N.Y.
² Charge Nurse, Munroe Wing, Regina General Hospital, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

The sleep patterns and reports on sleep of a group of reactive and a group of endogenous depressions were investigated. The findings support the following conclusions: (1) Nurses' observations of sleep are reliable in terms of inter-observer agreements and indicated that reactive and endogenous depressions do not differ in their patterns of sleep.(2) Patients who report difficulty in getting off to sleep and those who report early morning awakening do differ in the expected direction from those patients who do not make these reports in terms of their own subjective estimates of period of time awake, and also in terms of the nurses' observations of period of time awake. (3) Patients suffering from reactive depression do not differ from those suffering from endogenous depressions in their reports concerning difficulty in getting off to sleep and early morning awakening. (4) Patterns of sleep appear to vary considerably under different conditions.

In view of the above findings, studies such as that of Kiloh and Garside (1963) which report positive findings based on case material would appear to reflect the clinician's knowledge of clinical tradition and his need to arrive at a diagnosis rather than any real difference between reactive and endogenous depressions.

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