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Monday June 11 1:26 PM ET

Sleep Can Help Some Cope with Stress

By Bruce K. Dixon CHICAGO (Reuters Health) -

``Don't lose sleep over it'' may be good advice when pressure builds and the heat is on, results of a study suggest.

Researchers have been perplexed by findings that, during periods of stress, some people suffer diminished and fragmented sleep, while others ``sleep like a baby.'' A new study of students at Tel Aviv University presented here at the annual meeting of the Associated Sleep Societies suggests that people's coping styles explain this seeming contradiction.

``Those students who tended to focus on their emotions and anxiety during the high-stress period were more likely to shorten their sleep, while those who tended to ignore emotions and focus on tasks extended their sleep and shut themselves off from stress,'' said Dr. Avi Sadeh, the study's lead author.

Sadeh and colleagues studied the effects of highly stressful periods in students' lives on their sleep patterns. Thirty-six students aged 22 to 32 were assessed during a routine week of studies and a month later during a highly stressful week of personal interviews for admission to an elite graduate program in clinical psychology. The students were divided into two groups: high and low focus on emotions during stress.

Those who coped with stress by fretting and brooding reported that the quality of their sleep was diminished, Sadeh explained, but those who directed their focus away from their emotions said their sleep quality remained the same or even improved.

Sadeh said he almost titled his paper, ``If you can't cope with it, sleep on it,'' explaining that ``sometimes sleep can help you regulate your nervousness and offer you an escape from stress, particularly when there's nothing you can do about it.''

So which students were accepted into the graduate program? That data must wait because the selection process was not completed at press time.