La santé du sommeil en psychiatrie : à la croisée de la physiologie et de la santé publique

Abstract

The concept, and analysis, of sleep can often open the door to new health studies and strategies in psychiatry. Sleep is indeed a physiological and behavioral function essential to mental health. First, we need to screen and treat comorbid sleep disorders in persons with mental disorders. A sleep disorder is a pathological condition related to a sleep dysfunction that interferes with an individual's health. Scales can be used to help screen for sleep disorders in persons with a mental disorder. In return, psychiatry, through its attention to mental symptomatology, can provide important elements to better detect, delineate, and define sleep disorders. Second, we need to assess sleep alterations and a person's sleep health related to mental disorders. Indeed, the absence of a comorbid sleep disorder is not necessarily associated with good sleep health in persons with a mental disorder. The mental disorder may indeed impact sleep through a common pathophysiology, but also through non-optimal sleep behaviors for health. Scales can be used to assess sleep health in persons with a mental disorder. The implementation of preventive measures targeting sleep as a modifiable behavior in psychiatry is also necessary. In return, psychiatry, with its attention to behavior, can provide important elements for the development of integrative models to predict the relationship between sleep health and mental health, and propose an iterative approach between behavioral change models and pathophysiological models of mental disorders and sleep disorders, and can also design prevention strategies that improve sleep health that will have a real impact on mental health.