Sleep is one of those things that everyone knows is extremely important, but most people still struggle with. For many, this can be very frustrating since sleep should be the simplest thing in the world. Just lay down, close your eyes, and drift away.

As almost everyone has experienced at one point or another, however, sometimes sleep just doesn’t come easy. And even if it does come easy, it can be disrupted for various reasons.

To help people to better identify exactly what their issues are with sleep, and hopefully learn to fix them, a group of researchers conducted a study that worked with over 700 young adults. They published their results in the journal PLOS Biology.

In a statement about the study, the researchers wrote:

“Sleep is made up of many dimensions, not just how long we sleep. By analyzing more than 700 young adults, we discovered five distinct ‘sleep profiles’ based on reports of sleep duration, presence of disruptions, [and] use of sleep medications. Each profile carried its own distinctive link in health, lifestyle, and cognition and even showed unique neuroimaging traits using functional MRI.”

Based on the information they learned, they were able to break the different types of bad sleepers into five different group. So, let’s learn a bit about each group.

Bad Sleeper Type 1 – Mental Health

The first type of bad sleeper is described by the researchers as those who suffer from bad sleep (in comparison to those who have trouble falling asleep, don’t get enough sleep, etc).

This group is described in the study as those who report:

“Decreased sleep satisfaction, longer time to fall asleep, greater complaints of sleep disturbances, and daytime impairment.”

For most people in this group, their mental health is either the cause of or a symptom of their sleep troubles. This can include depressive issues, neuroticism, stress, anxiety, and more.

The study expands on this by saying:

 “The dominance of mental health markers in most of the profiles is not surprising as sleep is one of the five key domains of human functioning likely to affect mental health. Overall, poor sleep is not only a risk factor but also a co-morbid condition and transdiagnostic symptom for many mental disorders when sleep is disrupted, it […] contributes to the dysregulation of multiple neurobiological mechanisms related to emotional regulation and psychopathology.”

Bad Sleeper Type 2 – Distracted

This second type of bad sleeper is described in the study as being ‘sleep resilient’ in that they don’t report that they have sleep problems and generally say that they sleep well, despite problems that the researchers clearly link to sleep issues.

People in this group often have problems with maintaining attention or experiencing low conscientiousness during the day, but they don’t link these types of issues to the quality or quantity of their sleep.

Bad Sleeper Type 3 – Pharma Solutions

The third category of bad sleeper is one where the person who is having the issues is likely to turn to pharmacological solutions. These can be over the counter or prescription sleep aids, THC, or any number of other products that they take specifically to help them with their sleep (whether they actually help or not).

The people in this group usually report fewer problems with sleep related symptoms, which is not surprising because their sleep ends up being quite good thanks to the pharmacological solutions they rely on. According to the study, however, there are still potential problems.

They explain that their brainwork:

“Showed increased [resting-state functional connectivity] within the visual and default mode networks, and greater segregation in visual and limbic systems along with impaired visual memory and emotion recognition performance, may reflect sedation-related reductions in network integration that disrupt perceptual and affective-cognitive processes, despite subjectively intact attention and daytime functioning.”

Bad Sleeper Type 4 – Not Enough Sleep

Type 4 bad sleepers report that they don’t get enough sleep.

This is people who routinely get 6-7 hours of sleep at the most, and is commonly caused by work, school, or family obligations that prevent them from going to bed at a reasonable time, or forces them to wake up earlier than they would naturally.

Bad Sleeper Type 5 – Sleep Disruptions

This last type is also related to not getting enough sleep, but rather than not having enough hours of sleep, type 5 bad sleepers report waking up too much throughout the night.

This could be due to disruptions, difficulty breathing, frequent need to use the bathroom, or other problems. Depending on the severity of this type (and type 4) the results can be very serious issues while awake.

Providing these different categories will hopefully help those who have sleep issues to more precisely be able to identify them. Knowing what type of sleep problems one experiences can help to ensure they can find the right solutions, so they can get a good night sleep and feel refreshed throughout the day.