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Emotions altered with lack of sleep
Lack of sleep can have many negative health consequences, and new findings suggest that it can negatively impact emotions as well. Lack of sleep has been found to impair the brain’s ability to regulate emotions due to fatigue. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that 30 percent of Americans receive less than six hours of sleep a night, which means there are plenty of angry, easily irritated individuals walking around.
Research lead, Professor Talma Hendler, M.D., said, “Prior to our study, it was not clear what was responsible for the emotional impairments triggered by sleep loss. We assumed that sleep loss would intensify the processing of emotional images and thus impede brain capacity for executive functions. We were actually surprised to find that it significantly impacts the processing of both neutral and emotionally-charged images. It turns out we lose our neutrality. The ability of the brain to tell what’s important is compromised. It’s as if suddenly everything is important.”
The researchers had 18 adults stay awake throughout the night and take two rounds of tests while also undergoing brain mapping. The first set of tests monitored a good night’s sleep and the second monitored lack of sleep. One test had participants describe the direction of a yellow dot moving over distracted images. The images were either positively emotional (cat), negatively emotional (mutilated body) or neutral (spoon).
After a good night’s rest the participants were able to track the yellow dot over neutral images faster and more accurately, and their brain mapping revealed different neurological responses to neutral and emotional distractors. When the participants were sleep-deprived they performed poorly with neutral and emotional images, and their brain responses did not reflect different responses, which revealed a decrease in regulation.
Read more at http://www.belmarrahealth.com/emotions-altered-with-lack-of-sleep/
Also read: The common thing people do that affects their sleep
When we can’t sleep at night we try to fix our nighttime routine, to promote tiredness and relaxation in order to sleep. For example, we stay away from caffeine before bed, we make sure all the lights are off, and we may also avoid eating prior to sleep. If you’ve tried all these common tips for promoting sleep and still haven’t managed to improve the issue, you may be targeting the wrong problem.
