Wake after Sleep Onset (WASO) is a key polysomnographic and clinical metric that quantifies the total amount of time a person spends awake after initially falling asleep and before the final morning awakening. It is a direct and objective measure of sleep maintenance, reflecting the fragmentation and overall quality of nighttime rest. Elevated WASO is a hallmark indicator of chronic insomnia and is often linked to underlying physiological disturbances, including nocturnal hormonal dysregulation.
Origin
The term is rooted in sleep medicine and chronobiology, arising from the standardization of objective sleep staging criteria used in polysomnography, the gold standard for sleep measurement. The concept was developed to provide a precise, quantifiable metric for clinicians to differentiate between difficulty initiating sleep and difficulty maintaining sleep. Its utility in assessing the effectiveness of sleep interventions is widely accepted.
Mechanism
WASO is mechanistically driven by transient cortical arousals that interrupt the continuity of non-REM and REM sleep cycles, often without the individual fully realizing they were awake. In the context of hormonal health, these awakenings can be triggered by fluctuations in cortisol, a stress hormone, or by changes in core body temperature, which is often regulated by sex hormones. High WASO signifies a dysregulated sleep-wake homeostasis, leading to insufficient restorative sleep.
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