7. Sleep and Emotion Regulation Flashcards
1
Q
what is emotion regulation
A
- process by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have the, and how they are experienced and expressed (Gross, 1998)
- it allows us to have optimum levels of engagement with out environment
- critical to initiating, motivating and organising adaptive behaviour
- it also prevents stressful levels of negative emotions and maladaptive behaviour
- down regulation = decrease
- up regulation = increase
2
Q
Gross (1998)
A
emotion regulation is a process by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have the, and how they are experienced and expressed (Gross, 1998)
3
Q
sleep and emption regulation
A
- sleep and emotion have a bi-directional relationship
- emotional intensity affects how we sleep, the more aroused we are the harder it is
- how well we sleep influences our emotions, sleep affects emotion reactivity, emotion recognition and emotion memories
Dinges et al (1997)
Walker and Helm (2009)
Gujar et al (2011)
4
Q
Dinges et al (1997)
A
- participants were restricted on sleep in a lab for a week (4-5h per night)
- when individuals were sleep deprived there is a significant reduction in emotional wellbeing (assessed via POMS)
- individuals displayed significantly more cognitive and emotional complaints (mood gets worse)
5
Q
Walker and Helm (2009)
A
- sleep to forget, sleep to remember model
- sleep helps to encode emotional memories
- REM sleep helps maintain emotional homeostasis
- after sleep, emotional memories are less intense than when first experienced
- REM sleep activates brain structures (hippocampus, cortical structures and amygdala) linked to emotion, but takes away affective tone associated with that memory
6
Q
dreams vs nightmares
A
- dreams are associated with emotional regulation
- between 75-95% of dreams have an emotional component
- nightmares reflect a failure to regulate our emotions from the previous day (highlighted by a lack of emotional control, bizarre features and replay of traumatic experiences)
- dreams = organising memory and consolidation
- nightmares = failure to regulate emotions (e.g. PTSD)
7
Q
REM sleep and emotions
A
- sleep is critical to cognitive function
- emotional wellbeing and mental health not thought about until recently (sleep may have even more of an affect here compared to cognitive function)
- increased activity of emotion related to brain structures in sleep
- abnormalities in REM sleep are associated with daytime affective states
- mood disorders have been related to abnormalities in REM
8
Q
Gujar et al (2011)
A
- can sleep modulate our ability to recognise emotions?
- investigating the difference between a control and those who had napped for 90 minutes
- no nap group were much more sensitive to negative emotional expressions in the face (fear, anger and happy BUT not sad)
- nap group were more sensitive to happy faces
- they were further subdivided into those who had and hadn’t achieved REM sleep in their naps
- those who had showed a significant reduction in ratings towards fearful facial expressions and significant increase in ratings of happy faces
- nothing sig with sad faces
9
Q
sleep and emotion reactivity
A
Yoo et al (2007)
- 18-30 year olds (N=26) were assigned to a sleep deprivation group (awake for 35h) or to a control
- emotional stimulus viewing task whilst linked to an fMRI scanner
- stimuli ranged in experimentally controlled gradient from emotionally neutral to increasingly aversive (100 images)
- sleep deprived group showed 60% greater emotional response in the amygdala
- all groups showed increased response to negative stimuli compared to positive
- MPFC = proposed to exert an inhibitory, top down control of amygdala (acts as a break - significantly affected by sleep)
10
Q
sleep and mental health
A
- 90% of patients with depression report problems with their sleep
- there is a cycle of depression that sleep links in with:
- reduced serotonin levels may lead to an impaired sleeping pattern, which can lead to individuals feeling tired/exhausted throughout the day
- feelings of exhaustion in the day can lead to a depressive thinking style (feelings of hopelessness and anxiety) due to our increased emotional susceptibility
- this can lead to emotionally arousing rumination (deep and considered thought)
- in turn, this can lead to over-dreaming (REM) and less deep sleep (recuperation) which leads to feelings of tiredness/exhaustion the next day…..
11
Q
antidepressants and REM sleep
A
- MAOI’s = increase wake time and REM latency
= decrease sleep continuity, total sleep time and REM % - TCA’s = increase sleep continuity, total sleep time and REM latency
= decrease wake time and REM % - SSRI’s = increase wake time and REM latency
= decrease sleep continuity, total sleep time and REM % - effects on REM sleep are dramatic with MAOI’s, TCA’s and SSRI’s all reducing the amount of time an individual spends in REM sleep and also the increasing time it takes for an individual to get into rem sleep (REM latency)
- could be due to more time in SWS (think Gujar et al., 2011)
12
Q
sleep cycle
A
Steiger and Kimura (2010)
- looked and wake and sleep EEG biomarkers in depression
- depression = abnormalities when in REM sleep
- reduced REM latency (earlier REM)
- increased REM density (frequency of eye movements per unit of time) - linked to dreaming and exhaustion next day
- less SWS = feeling less rested
13
Q
the neural basis of REM sleep and its link to depression
A
- serotonergic activity high when awake, decreased in non-REM, silent in REM
- REM sleep is believe to be regulated by reciprocal inhibition of REM-promoting REM-on and REM-off neurons
- REM-off/on neurons seem to oscilate in rhythmic fashion inducing sleep, dreams and wake
- when REM-off neurons cease to fire the REM-on neurons become highly active until a REM episode is produced
- 90 minutes of REM/non-REM cycle
- individuals with depression have a depletion of 5-HT and NA, therefore, it is harder to cease REM sleep so stay in it for longer
14
Q
rem-on neurons
A
- REM-on cholinergic neurons located in the serotonergic and noradrenergic systems (LDT and PPT)
- initiate and maintain the production of REM sleep
- increased cholinergic activity in the medial pontine reticular and lateral pons during REM, opposite during termination of REM
15
Q
REM-off neurons
A
- located int he medial raphe nucleus (5-HT neurons here) and locus coeruleus (NA neurons here)
- highly active during wake, reducing activity during SWS, then signficiantly reduces activity with onset of REM
