Sleep Deprivation’s Toll on Emotions

Summary: Researchers examined over fifty years of research to highlight the profound impact of sleep loss on emotional well-being.

Analyzing data from 154 studies with 5,715 participants, the research team found that sleep deprivation leads to a decrease in positive emotions and an increase in anxiety symptoms. The study, which focused on various forms of sleep disruption, showed even short periods of sleep loss can significantly affect mood and emotional responses.

This extensive review underscores the critical importance of sleep for psychological health, especially in sleep-deprived societies.

Key Facts:

1. The study analyzed data from 154 studies over five decades, involving 5,715 participants.
2. Sleep deprivation was found to reduce positive emotions and increase anxiety symptoms.
3. The research emphasizes the need for industries and sectors with high risk of sleep loss to prioritize sleep for better health outcomes.

Source: APA

Sleep loss does more than just make us tired. It can undermine our emotional functioning, decrease positive moods and put us at higher risk for anxiety symptoms, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association that synthesized more than 50 years of research on sleep deprivation and mood.

“In our largely sleep-deprived society, quantifying the effects of sleep loss on emotion is critical for promoting psychological health,” said study lead author Cara Palmer, PhD, of Montana State University.

“This study represents the most comprehensive synthesis of experimental sleep and emotion research to date, and provides strong evidence that periods of extended wakefulness, shortened sleep duration, and nighttime awakenings adversely influence human emotional functioning.”

The study was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin.

Palmer and her colleagues, including co-lead author Joanne Bower, PhD, of East Anglia University, analyzed data from 154 studies spanning five decades, with 5,715 total participants. In all those studies, researchers disrupted participants’ sleep for one or more nights.

In some experiments, participants were kept awake for an extended period. In others, they were allowed a shorter-than-typical amount of sleep, and in others they were periodically awakened throughout the night.

Each study also measured at least one emotion-related variable after the sleep manipulation, such as participants’ self-reported mood, their response to emotional stimuli, and measures of depression and anxiety symptoms.

Overall, the researchers found that all three types of sleep loss resulted in fewer positive emotions such as joy, happiness and contentment among participants, as well as increased anxiety symptoms such as a rapid heart rate and increased worrying.

“This occurred even after short periods of sleep loss, like staying up an hour or two later than usual or after losing just a few of hours of sleep,” Palmer said. “We also found that sleep loss increased anxiety symptoms and blunted arousal in response to emotional stimuli.”

Findings for symptoms of depression were smaller and less consistent, as were those for negative emotions such as sadness, worry and stress.

One limitation to the study is that the majority of participants were young adults – the average age was 23. Future research should include a more diverse age sample to better understand how sleep deprivation affects people at different ages, according to the researchers.

Other directions for future research could include examining the effects of multiple nights of sleep loss, looking at individual differences to find out why some people may be more vulnerable than others to the effects of sleep loss, and examining the effects of sleep loss across different cultures, as most of the research in the current study was conducted in the United States and Europe, according to the researchers.

“Research has found that more than 30 percent of adults and up to 90 percent of teens don’t get enough sleep,” Palmer said.

“The implications of this research for individual and public health are considerable in a largely sleep-deprived society. Industries and sectors prone to sleep loss, such as first responders, pilots and truck drivers, should develop and adopt policies that prioritize sleep to mitigate against the risks to daytime function and well-being.”

About this sleep and emotion research news

Author: Lea Winerman
Source: APA
Contact: Lea Winerman – APA
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Closed access.
“Sleep Loss and Emotion: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Over Fifty Years of Experimental Research” by Cara Palmer et al. Psychological Bulletin

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Abstract

Sleep Loss and Emotion: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Over Fifty Years of Experimental Research

In a largely sleep-deprived society, quantifying the effects of sleep loss on emotion is critical for promoting psychological health. This preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis quantified the effects of various forms of sleep loss on multiple aspects of emotional experiences.

Eligible studies used experimental reductions of sleep via total sleep deprivation, partial sleep restriction, or sleep fragmentation in healthy populations to examine effects on positive affect, negative affect, general mood disturbances, emotional reactivity, anxiety symptoms, and/or depressive symptoms.

In total, 1,338 effect sizes across 154 studies were included (N = 5,717; participant age range = 7–79 years).

Random effects models were conducted, and all forms of sleep loss resulted in reduced positive affect (standardized mean difference [SMD] = −0.27 to −1.14), increased anxiety symptoms (SMD = 0.57–0.63), and blunted arousal in response to emotional stimuli (SMD = −0.20 to −0.53).

Findings for negative affect, reports of emotional valence in response to emotional stimuli, and depressive symptoms were mixed and depended on the type of sleep loss. Nonlinear effects for the amount of sleep loss as well as differences based on the stage of sleep restricted (i.e., rapid eye movement sleep or slow-wave sleep) were also detected.

This study represents the most comprehensive quantitative synthesis of experimental sleep and emotion research to date and provides strong evidence that periods of extended wakefulness, shortened sleep duration, and/or nighttime awakenings adversely influence human emotional functioning.

Findings provide an integrative foundation for future research on sleep and emotion and elucidate the precise ways that inadequate sleep may impact our daytime emotional lives.