Psychosocial Stress Before a Nap Increases Sleep Latency and Decreases Early Slow-Wave Activity

Ackermann, Sandra; Cordi, Maren Jasmin; Marca, Roberto La; Seifritz, Erich; Rasch, Björn

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00020

Cited by 26 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Notably, we did not find any differences in SWS oscillatory events between the stress and control groups. This differs from previous research, which has found that psychosocial stress impacts the architecture of subsequent sleep, in particular reducing SWS time and reducing slow wave (0.5Hz-4.5Hz) oscillatory power (Ackermann et al, 2019;Kim & Dimsdale, 2007). There are several possible reasons for this discrepancy.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 92%

Slow oscillation-spindle coupling is negatively associated with emotional memory formation following stress

Denis

Kim

Kark

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Sleep and stress have both been shown to enhance emotional memory consolidation. They also interact, with the largest benefit of sleep on emotional memory being seen when stress occurs either shortly before or after memory encoding. Slow wave sleep (SWS) is believed to be critical for episodic memory consolidation, facilitated by the coupling of slow oscillations and sleep spindles. However, prior work in humans has only demonstrated slow oscillation-spindle coupling to be associated with consolidation of neutral information in non-stressed participants.Whether coupling interacts with stress to facilitate emotional memory consolidation is unknown.To address this exploratory question, we reanalyzed an existing dataset of N=64 individuals.Participants underwent a psychosocial stressor (n=32) or comparable control (n=32) prior to the encoding of 150 line drawings of neutral, positive, and negative images. All participants then slept overnight with polysomnographic recordings. The next day, they were given a surprise memory test. In the stress group, percentage of time spent in SWS was positively correlated with memory for images of all valences (all r>.35, p<.043). Results were primarily driven by those who showed a high cortisol response to the stressor (all r>.65, p<.007), compared to low cortisol responders (all r<.31, all p>.25). However, the amount of slow oscillation-spindle coupling during SWS was negatively associated with neutral (r=-.45, p=.01) and emotional (r=-.66, p<.001) memory in the stress group. The negative association with emotional memory was significantly stronger than for neutral memory (Meng z=2.04, p=.04). Between stress and control groups, there were no differences in any of the sleep measures assessed. These results highlight the importance of considering sleep microarchitecture events in addition to overall sleep stage time and suggests that stress may alter the relationship between SWS and memory consolidation.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 92%

Slow oscillation-spindle coupling is negatively associated with emotional memory formation following stress

Denis

Kim

Kark

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…Critically, sleep disturbances are highly prevalent after trauma (70-91%; Maher, Rego, & Asnis, 2006) and have been identified as a risk factor for persistent PTSD (Babson & Feldner, 2010;Marcks, Weisberg, Edelen, & Keller, 2010). Experimental evidence (Ackermann, Cordi, La Marca, Seifritz, & Rasch, 2019;Sopp, Brueckner, Schäfer, Lass-Hennemann, & Michael, 2019) further indicates that sleep disturbances can arise as a direct result of ('traumatic') stress. Thus, sleep could act as an early modulator of intrusive re-experiencing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential effects of sleep on explicit and implicit memory for potential trauma reminders: findings from an analogue study

Sopp

Brueckner

Schäfer

et al. 2019

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

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Background: Recent findings suggest that disruptions of sleep-related memory processing are involved in the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms. More specifically, exposure to an analogue traumatic event resulted in fewer intrusive memories, when it was followed by sleep instead of continued wakefulness. However, competing evidence suggests that sleep deprivation may reduce intrusive re-experiencing. To address these conflicting accounts, we examined how sleepas opposed to partial sleep deprivationmodulates explicit and implicit trauma memory using an analogue procedure. Methods: Healthy participants (N = 41) were assigned to a Sleep or Partial sleep deprivation group. Prior to nocturnal sleep, both groups were exposed to "traumatic" picture stories. After sleep or partial sleep deprivation, participants were subjected to tests of explicit and implicit memory for potential trauma reminders. Thereafter, participants completed an intrusion triggering task that was embedded in a distractor task. Results: Analyses revealed higher explicit memory for potential trauma reminders after sleep as compared to partial sleep deprivation. No group differences were found for implicit memory. Participants responded with fewer intrusions after sleep than following partial sleep deprivation. Conclusions: The current findings support a protective role of sleep in trauma memory processing, which may be evident after the first night of sleep post-trauma. Although more research is needed, our results corroborate the importance of promoting restful sleep in trauma-exposed individuals.

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“…Although a relatively large literature examines relations between the experience of chronic daytime stress and sleep disruption ( Hall et al, 2007 ; Mezick et al, 2009 ; Hall et al, 2017 ), few studies have examined whether cognitive processes are affected by the experience of laboratory-induced stress immediately before bedtime (and none have examined whether next-day retrieval/execution of a PM intention encoded prior to sleep is affected by such an experience). This question is of interest because self-reported bedtime stress affects sleep quality negatively ( Åkerstedt et al, 2012 ), and laboratory-induced acute psychosocial stress experienced immediately prior to a nap increases sleep latency and decreases slow-wave activity ( Ackermann et al, 2019 ). The mechanisms underlying these effects appear to be related to the increases in sympathetic arousal and cortisol (CORT) concentrations provoked by the experience of stress ( McEwen et al, 2015 ; Sapolsky, 2015 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bedtime Stress Increases Sleep Latency and Impairs Next-Day Prospective Memory Performance

2020

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The cognitive construct of prospective memory (PM) refers to the capacity to encode, retain and execute delayed intentions (e.g. to remember to buy milk on the way home). Although previous research suggests that PM performance is enhanced by healthy sleep, conclusions tend to be drawn based on designs featuring ecologically unnatural manipulations (e.g. total sleep deprivation). This study investigates whether a more common everyday experience (bedtime stress) affects next-day PM performance and, in so doing, also contributes to the heretofore inconsistent literature on stress and PM. Forty young adults received PM task instructions and were then assigned to either a stress condition (exposure to a laboratory-based stress-induction manipulation; n = 20, 9 women) or a non-stress condition (exposure to a non-stressful control manipulation; n = 20, 12 women). After completing the experimental manipulation, all participants had their objective sleep quality measured over a full night of polysomnographic monitoring. Upon awakening, they completed the PM task. Analyses detected significant between-group differences in terms of stress outcomes, sleep quality and PM performance: Participants exposed to the manipulation experienced heightened signs of stress (captured using a composite variable that included self-report, psychophysiological and endocrinological measures), had longer sleep latencies and poorer sleep depth and displayed significantly longer reaction times to PM cues. An interaction between experimental condition (being exposed to the stressor) and disrupted sleep (longer sleep latency) significantly predicted poorer next-day PM reaction time. We interpret these findings as indicating that bedtime stress, which leads to heightened presleep arousal, affects sleep processes and, consequently, the deployment of attentional resources during next-day execution of a delayed intention.

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Psychosocial Stress Before a Nap Increases Sleep Latency and Decreases Early Slow-Wave Activity

Cited by 26 publications

References 58 publications

Slow oscillation-spindle coupling is negatively associated with emotional memory formation following stress

Slow oscillation-spindle coupling is negatively associated with emotional memory formation following stress

Differential effects of sleep on explicit and implicit memory for potential trauma reminders: findings from an analogue study

Bedtime Stress Increases Sleep Latency and Impairs Next-Day Prospective Memory Performance

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