Hyperarousal Is Associated with Socioemotional Processing in Individuals with Insomnia Symptoms and Good Sleepers

Abstract

Despite complaints of difficulties in waking socioemotional functioning by individuals with insomnia, only a few studies have investigated emotion processing performance in this group. Additionally, the role of sleep in socioemotional processing has not been investigated extensively nor using quantitative measures of sleep. Individuals with insomnia symptoms (n = 14) and healthy good sleepers (n = 15) completed two nights of at-home polysomnography, followed by an afternoon of in-lab performance testing on tasks measuring the processing of emotional facial expressions. The insomnia group self-reported less total sleep time, but no other group differences in sleep or task performance were observed. Greater beta EEG power throughout the night was associated with higher intensity ratings of happy, fearful and sad faces for individuals with insomnia, yet blunted sensitivity and lower accuracy for good sleepers. Thus, the presence of hyperarousal differentially impacted socioemotional processing of faces in individuals with insomnia symptoms and good sleepers.

The stigma of patients with chronic insomnia: a clinical study

“…Additionally, long-term insomnia could lead to cognitive dysfunction that displays clinically significant impairment of performance [ 9 ]. Increased impaired work productivity, reduced quality of life, mental health problems, and socioemotional difficulties are also common in those with insomnia [ 10 – 13 ]. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to explore related influence factors of chronic insomnia disorder (CID), which would inform future attempts to alleviate or treat insomnia symptoms.…”

Does Insomnia Exist without Hyperarousal? What Else Can There Be?

“…By disentangling how the flight-or-fight response suggested for acute insomnia is different to the learned hyperarousal observed in chronic insomnia, this review sets the tone for the rest of the issue. However, a very innovative way to study arousal, and especially hyperarousal, while looking at socioemotional processing is described by Howlett and colleagues [2]. By studying responses in categorization of face-emotion stimuli and intensity of risk-taking in both good sleepers and individuals suffering of insomnia, these authors suggests that beta activity (which is considered the cortical signature of hyperarousal) interferes differentially in the two studied groups and is not the hallmark of insomnia only.…”