Effects of a Stressful Presleep Experience on Electroencephalographrecorded Sleep

Bkeland, Frederick; Koulack, David; Lasky, Richard

doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1968.tb02784.x

Cited by 75 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The effects of presleep stress on affect and arousal are summarized below and are described at length in another report. Baekeland, Koulack and Lasky (1968), eye-movement activity tended to be greater during REM periods following the stress films, although this tendency did not reach significance in our data. REM-period respiratory irregularity was also greater on stress nights, for those subjects who showed irregular breathing as a response to the operation scenes in the Subincision film.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 53%

Repression, Interference and Field Dependence as Factors in Dream Forgetting1

Goodenough

Witkin

Lewis³

et al. 1973

ETS Research Bulletin Series

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A number of hypotheses about the effects of presleep stress on dream recall among field-dependent and field-independent~s were tested to explore the role of repression and of dream affect in dream recall.The effect of presleep stress was to increase arousal during RE~f sleep and affect in dream reports. The data also suggest that the most affectful dreams are best recalled. Among fielddependent~s dream content was reported less frequently on stress than on neutral nights, but no stress effect on dream report frequency was found among field-independent 5s. The results are discussed in terms of repression theory, m1d in terms of a possible alternative explanation that stress-produced anxiety interferes with attentional processes required for dream recall at the moment of awakening. Among the many instances of recall failure observed in that study, we were struck by a few in which the subject said he was sure he was dreaming but could not recall any content. In these instances, the subject said the dream was "on the tip of his tongue" as he was awakening but suddenly it was "sucked away. II This type of report is rare in the laboratory. In our early study, for example, only three such reports were obtained in a total of 169In contrast what the subject much more commonly reports when unable to recall dream content is that nothing was going through his mind (no-dream report) before the awakening.The contentless dream report seems especially interesting in relation to repression, for several reasons. First, its phenomenology is suggestive of the kind of experience that may occur as the forces of repression, activated in the course of awakening, blot out the dream experience. Second, the three contentless dream reports observed came from REM periods with unusually marked breathing irregularity, contrasting with the more regular breathing associated with the no-dream type of recall failure. The suggestion of increased REM-period arousal suggested that contentless dream reports may occur on awakenings from particularly affective REM-period experiences. In fact, it seemed possible that it is the very residue of feeling carried over from the preawakening experience which provides the cue for the subject that "something (a dream) had been going on" during sleep, even though no content remains. In addition it seemed plausible to suppose that dreams which are good candidates for repression would more frequently be accompanied by signs -3-of greater affect and greater physiological arousal than the ordinary dream.On the basis of these observations, we hypothesized that the effect of the stress films on dream recall would show itself specifically in more frequent content less dream reports, and that contentless dream reports would come

show abstract

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 53%

Repression, Interference and Field Dependence as Factors in Dream Forgetting1

Goodenough

Witkin

Lewis³

et al. 1973

ETS Research Bulletin Series

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This approach did not, however, seem to have much effect other than intensifying the REM sleep (82)(83)(84). It is likely, however, that artificial stress without much significance to the individual may not be expected to affect sleep.…”

Section: Stress and Polysomnographymentioning

confidence: 91%

Psychosocial stress and impaired sleep

Åkerstedt¹

2006

Scand J Work Environ Health

464

380

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Since Agnew, Webb, and Williams (1966) reported and defined the first-night effect, several researchers have described its association with reduced TST, poor SE, less REM sleep, increased SL, and increased WASO (Aber et al, 1989;Curcio, Ferrara, Piergianni, Fratello, & De Gennaro, 2004;Le Bon et al, 2000;Li et al, 2004;Scholle et al, 2003;Toussaint et al, 1997 Acute experimental psychological stress in healthy participants had a consistent effect on REM sleep in early studies. In the 1960s and 1970s, many researchers reported that presleep stimulation influenced REM activity and awakenings (Baekeland, Koulack, & Lasky, 1968;Cluydts & Visser, 1980;Cohen, 1975;Goodenough, Witkin, Koulack, & Cohen, 1975). Pre-sleep stress, such as an aversive film (Baekeland et al, 1968;Cluydts & Visser, 1980;Goodenough et al, 1975;Lauer, Riemann, Lund, & Berger, 1987) or impersonal treatment (Cohen, 1975), was associated with increased frequency of rapid eye movements (REM density; Goodenough et al, 1975;Lauer et al, 1987), number of awakenings (Baekeland et al, 1968;Cluydts & Visser, 1980), and longer SL (Goodenough et al, 1975).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the 1960s and 1970s, many researchers reported that presleep stimulation influenced REM activity and awakenings (Baekeland, Koulack, & Lasky, 1968;Cluydts & Visser, 1980;Cohen, 1975;Goodenough, Witkin, Koulack, & Cohen, 1975). Pre-sleep stress, such as an aversive film (Baekeland et al, 1968;Cluydts & Visser, 1980;Goodenough et al, 1975;Lauer, Riemann, Lund, & Berger, 1987) or impersonal treatment (Cohen, 1975), was associated with increased frequency of rapid eye movements (REM density; Goodenough et al, 1975;Lauer et al, 1987), number of awakenings (Baekeland et al, 1968;Cluydts & Visser, 1980), and longer SL (Goodenough et al, 1975).More recently, Koulack, Prevost, and De Koninck (1985) gave an intellectually challenging test to 16 male university students; the suggestion of inferiority led to longer SL and lower REM density than at baseline. Germain, Buysse, Ombao, Kupfer, and Hall (2003) reported that acute experimental psychological stress reduced rapid eye movement counts during the last REM sleep period in healthy participants when compared to non-stressed control participants.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Psychosocial Stress on Sleep: A Review of Polysomnographic Evidence

Kim

Dimsdale

2007

Behavioral Sleep Medicine

345

250

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This systematic review examines the effect of diverse psychosocial stressors on polysomnographic measures of sleep. Sixty-three articles were located and categorized in terms of the types of stressors imposed. Experimental stress resulted in fairly consistent changes: decreases in slow wave sleep, REM sleep, and sleep efficiency (SE), as well as increases in awakenings. Data were limited in terms of response to non-experimental stressors, except for the case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on sleep, where a number of reports suggest that PTSD patients have increased awakenings and decreased SE. Future research needs to define stress more precisely in terms of duration and severity and to measure its impacts on sleep in populations that differ in terms of age, comorbid illness, gender, and so forth. Without such fine-grained analyses, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions about this important area.Sleep researchers traditionally have focused on primary sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, narcolepsy, or periodic limb movement disorder; but common knowledge has it that the stresses of daily life can perturb even healthy sleep. As Mason (1968) described, psychological stressors are potent stimuli for physiological stress responses. Most studies on psychosocial stress and its physiological effects on sleep are based solely on subjective reports. However, these subjective reports of sleep are not sufficient to evaluate physiological sleep changes as measured by polysomnography (PSG; Akerstedt, Hume, Minors, & Waterhouse, 1994;Schneider-Helmert & Kumar, 1995). What really happens in sleep physiology after exposure to stressors? Although the gold standard of measurement of sleep is PSG, there are relatively little data concerning the effects of ordinary or severe stress on polysomnographically examined sleep. This article systematically reviews the diverse literature in this area.Stress is notorious for being difficult to define. It encompasses all kinds of stimuli of varying amounts of aversiveness and duration (Dimsdale, Irwin, Keefe, & Stein, 2005). Kecklund and Akerstedt (2004b) grouped stressors conceptionally into physical versus psychological or social, acute versus chronic, and high intensity versus low intensity.Copyright © Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Correspondence should be addressed to Joel E. Dimsdale, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman D., La Jolla, CA 92093-0804. jdimsdale@ucsd.edu. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptBehav Sleep Med. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2014 December 15. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptAlthough there are numerous animal models of social stress, it is still challenging to generalize psychosocial stress responses in animals to those in humans. This review focuses on psychosocial stressors; other types of stressors such as environmental manipulations (e.g., temperature), exercise, or intentionally imposed sleep disruption are not covered in this article.It is possible that different types...

show abstract

Effects of a Stressful Presleep Experience on Electroencephalographrecorded Sleep

Cited by 75 publications

References 39 publications

Repression, Interference and Field Dependence as Factors in Dream Forgetting1

Repression, Interference and Field Dependence as Factors in Dream Forgetting1

Psychosocial stress and impaired sleep

The Effect of Psychosocial Stress on Sleep: A Review of Polysomnographic Evidence

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About