The bidirectional relation between emotional reactivity and sleep: From disruption to recovery.

Abstract

Sleep disturbances are highly prevalent and greatly affect consecutive emotional reactivity, while sleep quality itself can be strongly affected by reactions to previous emotional events. In this review, we shed light on this bidirectional relation through examples of pathology: insomnia and bipolar disorder. We show that both experimental sleep deprivation and insomnia are related to increased emotional reactivity and increased amygdala activation upon emotional stimuli presentation, and that particularly Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep is important for emotional processing and reorganization of emotion-specific brain activity. Increased emotional reactivity affects REM sleep quality and sleep spindles, while REM sleep is particularly affected in insomnia, possibly related to condition-specific hyperarousal levels. Normal sleep onset deactivation of brain regions important for emotional processing (amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)) is further affected in insomnia. In bipolar disorder, sleep disturbances are common in both symptomatic and nonsymptomatic phases. Both amygdala and ACC volume and function are affected in bipolar disorder, with the ACC showing phase-dependent resting state activity differences. Deficient Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) GABA-ergic activity of this region might play a role in sleep disturbances and their influence on emotional reactivity, given the inhibitory role of GABA on brain activity during sleep and its deficiency in both bipolar disorder and insomnia. Promising findings of normalizing brain activity in both insomnia and bipolar disorder upon treatment may inspire a focus on treatment studies investigating the normalization of sleep, emotional reactivity, and their corresponding brain activity patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record

The key role of insomnia and sleep loss in the dysregulation of multiple systems involved in mood disorders: A proposed model

“…Sleep has important functions that are fundamental for the regulation of emotion, reward system and cognition (Abel, Havekes, Saletin, & Walker, 2013;Fairholme & Mamber, 2015;Goldstein & Walker, 2014;Perogamvros & Schwartz, 2015;Raven et al, 2017;Van Someren et al, 2015;Walker, 2009Walker, , 2010Walker & van der Helm, 2009). Insomnia and sleep loss have been proposed to lead to maladaptive emotional regulation, and consequently to exaggerated neural and behavioural reactivity to experiences and reward (Altena et al, 2016;Baglioni et al, 2010;Boudebesse & Henry, 2012;Gujar et al, 2011;Krause et al, 2017;McKenna & Eyler, 2012;Yoo, Gujar, Hu, Jolesz, & Walker, 2007). In addition, they are related to impairments in basic cognitive functions and higher-order cognitive processing of executive functions involved in supervisory control, problem-solving, flexibility, self-control and decision-making (Killgore, 2010;Krause et al, 2017;Ma, Dinges, Basner, & Rao, 2015;Pilcher, Morris, Donnelly, & Feigl, 2015;Raven et al, 2017;Rossa, Smith, Allan, & Sullivan, 2014;Simon et al, 2015;Venkatraman, Chuah, Huettel, & Chee, 2007), as well as to impulsive and aggressive behaviours (Acheson, Richards, & de Wit, 2007;Kamphuis et al, 2014;Rossa et al, 2014) and, consequently, to the increased risk of suicidality (for an overview, see Woznica et al, 2015).…”

“…Indeed, sleep has important regulatory functions that are involved in most of the mechanisms that have been hypothesized to sustain mood disorders, including altered monoamine neurotransmission, hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal (HPA)-axis abnormalities involved in chronic stress and inflammation, glutamatergic and orexinergic dysregulation, altered brain neurotrophic factors, brain neuroplasticity dysfunction and circadian systems dysregulations (Hashimoto, 2010;Leboyer et al, 2012;Mahar, Bambico, Mechawar, & Nobrega, 2014;McClung, 2013;aan het Rot et al, 2009;Yeoh, Campbell, James, Graham, & Dayas, 2014). In addition, sleep affects emotions, motivation, decision-making and cognition (Altena et al, 2016;Walker, 2009Walker, , 2010Walker & van der Helm, 2009), which are implicated in the development and maintenance of mood disorders (Baskin-Sommers & Foti, 2015;Hofmann, Sawyer, Fang, & Asnaani, 2012;Whitton, Treadway, & Pizzagalli, 2015).…”

How sleep problems contribute to simulator sickness: Preliminary results from a realistic driving scenario

“…Insomnia is a highly prevalent condition, particularly in women, that puts individuals at further risk of developing serious health problems such as depression and cardiovascular problems (Sivertsen, Krokstad, Overland, & Mykletun, 2009;Sofi et al, 2014). This condition of chronic partial sleep deprivation further affects cognitive and affective daytime functioning (Altena et al, 2016(Altena et al, , 2017Ohayon & Lemoine, 2004). Sleep problems have been associated with changes in interoceptive sensitivity, which is the ability to detect internal bodily sensations such as heartbeat and breathing (Yoris et al, 2015).…”

How Hyperarousal and Sleep Reactivity Are Represented in Different Adult Age Groups: Results from a Large Cohort Study on Insomnia

“…With stress reduction and improved emotion coping during daytime, it might be possible to reduce sleep-disrupting events during the night as well [14]. In fact, stress coping strategies are a mediating factor in the relation between stress exposure and insomnia development [25].…”

“…In addition, there are other developmental changes that may impact sleep quality with aging, including neurocognitive and hormonal changes, behavioural/sleep scheduling factors, and reduced amplitude of circadian rhythms [14]. These factors may attenuate the role of arousal as a factor accounting for sleep disturbances.…”