Sleep Restriction may Affect Your Emotional Reactions

Restricting sleep may affect your emotional reactions and impose a negative emotional bias, leading to an increased tendency to evaluate emotional stimuli as negative, reveals a new study.

Restricting sleep for several nights in a row can affect your emotional reaction, reports a new study.

In a recent Journal of Sleep Research study, participants perceived pleasant and neutral pictures in a more negative way when their sleep was restricted for several nights in a row.

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Sleep is a behavioral state of restricted physical activity. It is controlled by our internal biological clock.

‘Restricting sleep may impose a negative emotional bias, leading to an increased tendency to evaluate emotional stimuli as negative.’
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In the study, participants were tested the morning after 5 nights of regular sleep and after 5 consecutive nights of sleep restriction (5 hours a night).

"Insufficient sleep may impose a negative emotional bias, leading to an increased tendency to evaluate emotional stimuli as negative," said lead author Daniela Tempesta, PhD, of the University of L'Aquila, in Italy.

She noted that the findings are especially pertinent because chronic sleep restriction is a common and underestimated health problem in the general population.

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"Considering the pervasiveness of insufficient sleep in modern society, our results have potential implications for daily life, as well as in clinical settings."

Source-Eurekalert

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