Sleep, the common denominator for psychological adaptation

Research over the last three decades has increasingly demonstrated that sleep and its various components have a direct impact on many psychological functions such as vigilance, learning, memory, mood and psychological adaptation in general. More recently, the discovery of closer links of circadian rhythms with sleep quality has lead to the development of better intervention methods for adaptation to shift work, circadian phase disruptions and mood disorders (depressions). We present an overview of some of those findings pointing out the contributions of Canadian psychology laboratories. We conclude that more attention should be given to sleep and biological rhythms in research and training in both experimental and applied psychology, as well as in professional practice.