Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed? It happens to all of us, and a recent US study provides further proof that lower-quality sleep, or less of it, can impair emotional functioning, impact positive moods, and expose us to a higher risk of symptoms of anxiety.
“In our largely sleep-deprived society, quantifying the effects of sleep loss on emotion is critical for promoting psychological health,” explained lead author Dr Cara Palmer of Montana State University.
This study, she said, 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.
This research synthesised no less than five decades of research on sleep deprivation and mood. It is based on the analysis of data from 154 studies involving 5,717 participants who had their sleep deliberately disrupted by researchers over one or more nights, were kept awake for long periods, slept less than usual, or were woken up regularly during the night.
All studies also analysed at least one emotion-related marker: self-reported mood, reaction to emotional stimuli, or symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, the results reveal that sleep deprivation doesn’t just induce fatigue, it also negatively influences emotional functioning, decreases positive moods, and increases the risk of anxiety and depressive symptoms.
More concretely, regardless of the experiment, researchers observed adverse effects on happiness and contentment among participants, as well as an increase in anxiety symptoms, reflected in accelerated heart rate.
“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 hours of sleep,” Palmer noted. “Sleep loss increased anxiety symptoms and blunted arousal in response to emotional stimuli.”
The study had certain limitations, however, such as the lack of diversity in terms of participants’ ages (23 on average) and cultures (US and Europe only). Nevertheless, it allows experts to assess the impact sleep deprivation can have on mental health and its consequences on personal and professional lives.
“Research has found that more than 30% of adults and up to 90% of teens don’t get enough sleep. 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 prioritise sleep to mitigate risks to daytime function and wellbeing,” Palmer concluded.