Story at a glance
- New research shows that the biological cause of anxiety and sleeplessness looks similar in the brain.
- “Being sleep deprived takes away your emotion regulation capabilities,” says the study author.
- “And then sleep, specifically deep sleep, magically brings it back online.”
New research published in Nature Human Behavior connects sleep deprivation and anxiety. Not only do stressful thoughts make it hard to sleep, but a lack of sleep also harms your ability to regulate your emotions the next day, reports NOVA Next.
“Typically, people think of lost sleep as a symptom of anxiety,” Eti Ben Simon, first author of the study, told NOVA Next. “But disturbed sleep can be an instigator of anxiety, too.”
Ben Simon and her colleagues point to troubling trends where many Americans, up to 35 percent of adults according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are not getting enough sleep. A survey of fitness tracker data found that military academy students are the most sleep-deprived, and schools with higher rankings in U.S. News generally had students staying up later, NPR reported in 2016.
After identifying the connection between sleep deprivation and anxiety, the research team used MRI brain scans to look for a root cause behind both symptoms. When study participants were shown emotional video clips, emotive brain regions lit up with activity in the MRI. In well-rested individuals, the prefrontal cortex is a logical brake pedal that helps a person regulate their reactions.
But in sleep-deprived study participants, the prefrontal cortex didn’t light up. It wasn’t active, so the emotive brain regions could run wild and it was more difficult for participants to manage their reactions. The brain scans looked a lot like anxiety.
A last portion of the study asked participants to use online surveys to track their quality of sleep and emotional state. They found that frequently waking up in the middle of the night would lead to a poor emotional state, but good sleep helped people recover.
“It’s a beautiful cycle,” Ben Simon told NOVA Next. “Being sleep deprived takes away your emotion regulation capabilities. And then sleep, specifically deep sleep, magically brings it back online, and lets you start your day calmer.”
changing america copyright.
