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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Shayla Love

You were asleep but swear you weren’t: what is paradoxical insomnia?

Insomnia Hannah Scott Brain
‘We have just been overlooking this aspect of sleep.’ Illustration: Guardian Design

In 2018, Hannah Scott, a sleep researcher at Flinders University, waited for a woman to fall asleep.

This can take time when the subject is connected to equipment measuring brain activity, eye movement, heart rate and muscle activation. But about 30 minutes after the woman closed her eyes, Scott saw the telltale signs of sleep from the electroencephalogram, or EEG: a shift to lower-frequency brainwaves.

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