Sign up for CNN's Sleep, But Better newsletter series. 7-part guide includes helpful tips to help you sleep better.
CNN
—
not obtained Not enough sleep or lack of sleep can have a big impact on you mood and mental healthaccording to a new study that analyzed 50 years of research.
“We found that all forms of sleep deprivation, including complete sleep deprivation, partial sleep deprivation, and sleep fragmentation, cause emotional changes. The strongest and most consistent effect is that sleep deprivation leads to positive mood. ,” said co-lead author Carla Palmer, assistant professor and director of the Sleep Development Laboratory at Montana State University, Bozeman.
“We also found that sleep deprivation increases anxiety,” Palmer said in an email. “When experiencing an emotional event, people were also more likely to report different reactions than those who were well-rested.
“Specifically, they reported a decrease in emotional arousal, which is when you feel the intensity of a particular emotion in your body. This means that people overall feel calmer after sleep deprivation. It suggests that you are feeling an emotional response.”
Adults over the age of 18 need at least seven hours of solid sleep a night to be healthy. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If we fall below that minimum, the cost can be significant. Research shows that sleep deprivation and sleep disorders are linked. Obesity, increased risk of heart disease and dementiasimilarly mood disorder.
Despite the risks, More than 30% of adults Almost 1 in 10 adults miss two or more hours of sleep each night, while having a sleep debt (less hours of sleep than their body needs) of more than one hour each day. 2022 survey found.
“Few people around the world get the recommended amount of sleep for at least five nights a week,” said study co-author Joe Bower, a lecturer at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. said in an email. “Our research shows the potential impact this can have on our mental health at a time when mental health problems are rapidly increasing.”
Published Thursday The study, published in the American Psychological Association's journal Psychological Bulletin, analyzed data from 154 studies involving more than 5,000 people over 50 years.
In these studies, researchers kept participants awake for more than one night by keeping them awake (sleep deprivation), waking them periodically (sleep fragmentation), or waking them earlier than usual (partial sleep deprivation). disrupted sleep. Participants were then tested for anxiety, depression, mood, and responses to emotional factors.
“In general, complete sleep deprivation has a greater impact on mood and emotions than partial or fragmented sleep deprivation,” Palmer says. “Interestingly, however, the effect of sleep on positive mood is short-term sleep deprivationIt's like waking up an hour or two later than usual or waking up after losing just a few hours of sleep. ”
The “large and comprehensive” meta-analysis highlights the strong link between mental health and sleep, said Dr. Raj Dasgupta, a sleep specialist and associate professor of pulmonology. Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. He was not involved in the study.
“Maybe there is some truth behind these words.”I woke up on the wrong side of the bed” Dasgupta said in an email. “Studies included in the meta-analysis found that subjects with poor sleep quantity and quality reported feeling more stressed, angry, sad, and mentally fatigued. When they restarted it, they reported a dramatic improvement in their mood.”
Ekaterina Vasileva-Bugler/Moment RF/Getty Images
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adults 18 and older need at least seven hours of solid sleep a night to be healthy.
What is it about sleep that makes our bodies behave the way they do? The answer, Palmer says, is in the brain.
“Previous research has shown that sleep deprivation affects neural circuits involved in experiencing reward and positive experiences, and this may play a role,” she said. . “We also see an increased response in areas of the brain associated with the experience of emotion.
“At the same time, connections between the brain's emotional centers and the prefrontal cortex, which help properly control emotional responses, are impaired.”
While all types of sleep disorders affect mood, this study found that after losing a sleep disorder, people reacted more negatively to emotional experiences. rapid eye movement (REM) sleep When compared to losing slow wave or “deep” sleep.
meanwhile slow wave sleepThe body removes potentially harmful substances from the brain, including beta-amyloid protein, a hallmark sign of Alzheimer's disease, while REM sleep is the sleep stage in which we dream and collect information and experiences. are integrated and stored in memory.
“Maybe both are important, but in different ways,” Bower says. “For example, previous research has shown that REM sleep may be associated with processing emotional memories and may influence mood through cognitive processes.”
However, she said slow-wave sleep may be associated with the brain's reward centers, which can influence how people respond to positive emotional situations.
Deep sleep is considered one of the best markers of sleep quality because achieving deep sleep typically requires relatively uninterrupted sleep. Each sleep cycle is approximately 90 minutes long, so in order for most adults to achieve restorative sleep they need 7 to 8 hours of relatively uninterrupted sleep. CDC.
Impact on anxiety and depression
Lack of sleep also worsens symptoms anxiety and depressionThis is true even in people with no known mental illness or physical health condition, according to the study.
“Longer periods of wakefulness led to more extreme depressive and anxiety symptoms,” Palmer said. “Sleep deprivation may have a different impact on people who are already depressed or who have a genetic risk for depression. For example, some of our previous research has shown that This suggests that people with anxiety may experience an exaggerated response to sleep deprivation.”
Sleep problems can also be one of the first signs of a new mental disorder, Dasgupta said.
“Chronic insomnia can increase the risk of developing mood disorders such as depression and anxiety,” he said. “Sleep deprivation may be an even greater risk factor for anxiety. Studies included in the meta-analysis found that people with insomnia were more likely to develop anxiety disorders, and insomnia was a reliable predictor of depression.” It has also been shown that.”
Obstructive sleep apnea, in which the body stops breathing for more than 10 seconds at a time, can also cause sleep to become fragmented and disrupted, Dasgupta said. This kind of sleep disorder “occurs frequently in people with mental illness and needs to be addressed,” he said.
Further research is needed to determine the impact of sleep deprivation on people with pre-existing mental disorders. teens and childrenBut Bower said each person needs to be careful to prioritize sleep in their lives.
“Getting enough sleep is an important act of self-care, just like eating well and exercising,” Bower says. “It is also important to make systemic changes to support an individual's ability to get quality sleep.
“This includes considering policies around school start times, working hours, shift patterns, and access to health care to support the treatment of sleep disorders.”
