Alterations in individual structural covariance networks in patients with insomnia disorder

Insomnia disorder has become a prevalent sleep issue in modern society. Despite its widespread occurrence, the underlying neural mechanisms of insomnia, particularly concerning brain structure, remain poorly understood. This study examines the differences in brain network structure between insomnia patients and healthy controls by analyzing the topological properties of individual structural covariance networks. The results reveal significant differences between insomnia patients and healthy controls in global network topological metrics—including the small-worldness index, local efficiency, characteristic path length, and clustering coefficient—as well as in the local topological metric of nodal degree. Moreover, these differences are closely associated with the severity of insomnia symptoms. The findings suggest that disruptions in brain network structure may represent a potential mechanism underlying insomnia, providing a theoretical basis for clinical diagnosis and treatment.