An individual consistently wakes up feeling unrefreshed, despite sleeping for 8 hours. Which mechanism most likely explains why subjective sleep quality is poor despite sufficient sleep duration?

💡 Explanation

Disrupted slow-wave activity during sleep diminishes restorative processes, because slow-wave sleep is crucial for physiological restoration and memory consolidation. Therefore, an individual feels unrefreshed, rather than feeling restored by sleep that is uninterrupted and includes sufficient slow-wave activity.

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