Sleep after stress induction: the role of stressful memory reactivation

Abstract

Exposure to extreme stress is known to have immediate as well as long‐term effects on sleep. There is some evidence that adverse childhood experiences as well can increase the vulnerability of sleep to stress in the long term. In order to validate these assumptions, 39 healthy female undergraduate students were exposed to a video stress induction procedure before bedtime. Self‐reports and actigraphic measures were collected through a period of three baseline nights and the test night. Participants' self‐reports of the subsequent night's sleep were significantly associated with the degree to which they reported that the stress inducing film had triggered own stressful memories of their past. This finding supports the assumption that early stress history can increase an individual's vulnerability of sleep to stress, in particularly when actual stressors lead to the reactivation of stressful memories. Yet, actigraphic measures did not corroborate this subjective impression of sleep impairment. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sleep, Stress and Health: A Commentary

“…A wide diversity of populations have been studied—for example, undergraduate students (Bader, Bauer, Christen, & Schäfer, ; Barber & Munz, ; Barber et al, ; Benham, ; Gress‐Smith, Roubinov, Andreotti, Compas, & Luecken, ), full‐time employees (Barber & Jenkins, ; Pereira & Elfering, ; Pereira, Meier, & Elfering, ) and clinical populations including psychiatric outpatients (Schafer & Bader, ) and people with diabetes (Perfect et al, ). It is noteworthy that in all populations studied, important relationships between sleep, stress and health were found.…”

“…Students are known to suffer from poor sleep and sleep‐hygiene behaviours (Todd & Mullan, ). The educational/academic setting also represents a convenience sample for recruitment, as is reflected here (e.g., Bader et al, ; Benham, ; Gress‐Smith et al, ). Within this context, the link to stress has been confirmed using retrospective (Gress‐Smith et al, ), cross‐sectional (Benham, ) and experimental designs (Bader et al, ).…”

“…The educational/academic setting also represents a convenience sample for recruitment, as is reflected here (e.g., Bader et al, ; Benham, ; Gress‐Smith et al, ). Within this context, the link to stress has been confirmed using retrospective (Gress‐Smith et al, ), cross‐sectional (Benham, ) and experimental designs (Bader et al, ). For example, Gress‐Smith et al () found that perceived stress mediated the relationship between childhood adversity and both insomnia and depression.…”

“…An equivalent relationship was found amongst psychiatric outpatients (Schafer & Bader, ). Bader et al () found that exposure to a stressful video led to poorer sleep, particularly if it activated memories of stressful life events. Regarding health, Benham () found that sleep variables increased the prediction of physical symptoms by 17–26% over and above the influence of stress.…”

Where Does Sleep Fit in Models of Self‐Control and Health Behaviour?

“…Sleep quality, and actions to ensure more effective sleep, been frequently studied as dependent variables rather than predictor variables (e.g., Akerstedt et al, 2012), a fact highlighted by the articles in the current Virtual Issue (e.g., Barber & Jenkins, 2014). Important psychological factors impacting on sleep quality include stress (Bader, Bauer, Christen, & Schäfer, 2011;Gress-Smith, Roubinov, Andreotti, Compas, & Luecken, 2014) and work-related strain (Pereira & Elfering, 2014;Pereira, Meier, & Elfering, 2013;Schäfer & Bader, 2013). In addition, social cognitive and motivational factors that predict individuals' motivation and intentions to engage in behaviours that promote better sleep quality, collectively known as sleep 'hygiene' behaviours, have also been identified (e.g., Knowlden & Sharma, 2014;Knowlden, Sharma, & Bernard, 2012;Kor & Mullan, 2011).…”