EMOTIONAL DAY AHEAD: A new study shows that after sleep-deprivation, people are more prone to act over-emotionally and irrationally, a finding that suggests that sleep may play a role in many psychiatric disorders.
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There's no question that people need their sleep: studies have linked a lack of shut-eye to everything from disruptions in the immune system to cognitive deficits to weight control.
In fact, psychologist Matthew Walker of the University of California, Berkeley, says that "almost all psychiatric disorders show some problems with sleep.'' But, he says that scientists previously believed the psychiatric problems triggered the sleep issues. New research from his lab, however, suggests the reverse is the case; that is, a lack of shut-eye is causing some psychological disturbances.
Walker's team and collaborators from Harvard Medical School reached their conclusions, published in Current Biology, after studying 26 healthy students aged 24 to 31 after either an all-nighter or a full night's sleep.
Fourteen subjects spent 35 straight hours without getting a wink before being rolled into a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanners where their brains were observed while they viewed a set of 100 photos that became increasingly disturbing as they progressed. Early slides were snapshots of an empty wicker basket on a table; the scenes changed as the series progressed, however, to more shocking settings, such as a tarantula on a person's shoulder and finally pictures of burn victims and other traumatic portraits.
The researchers mainly monitored the amygdala, a midbrain structure that decodes emotion, and observed that both sets of volunteers had a similar baseline of activity when shown the innocuous images. But, when the scenes became more gruesome, the amygdalae of the sleep-deprived participants kicked up, showing 60 percent more activity relative to the normal population's response. In addition, the researchers noticed that more than five times more neurons in the area were transmitting impulses in the sleep-deprived brains.
Walker described the heightened emotional response in the weary as "profound," noting, "We've never seen a magnitude of increase between two groups that big in any of our studies before."
The team also checked the fMRI readings to determine whether any other brain regions had a similar pattern of activity, which would indicate that the brain networks were communicating with one another. In normal participants, the amygdala seemed to be talking to the medial prefrontal cortex, an outer layer of the brain that, Walker says, helps to contextualize experiences and emotions. But, in the sleep-deprived brain, the amygdala seemed to be "rewired," coupling instead with a brain stem area called the locus coeruleus, which secretes norepinephrine, a precursor of the hormone adrenaline that triggers fight-or-flight type reactions.
"Medial prefrontal cortex is the policeman of the emotional brain," Walker says. "It makes us more rational. That top-down, inhibitory connection is severed in the condition of sleep deprivation. … The amygdala seems to be able to run amok." People in this state seem to experience a pendulum of emotions, going from upset and annoyed to giddy in moments, he says.
"There seems to be a causal relationship between impaired sleep and some of the psychiatric symptomatology and disorders that we're seeing," says Robert Stickgold, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in this study. He cites research linking sleep apnea, in which breathing is disrupted, to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the evidence of a connection between depression and insomnia as examples. "It might be that those medial frontal regions tell the rest of the brain, 'You can chill,'" he says. "Those circuits become exhausted or altered after a lack of sleep."
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11 Comments
Add CommentDoes poor sleep, say 3-5 hours of sleep, lead to a similar type of amygdalar hyper arousal?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's a sobering concept, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat still doesn't explain the connection between sleep deprivation and unusually intense sexual arousal...right?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo understand Matthew Walkers study is essential. As physicians we need to integrate deficient sleep as a differential diagnostic possibility. This avenue could open a myriad of potential options in the treatment of the major mental illnesses.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDr. J. Semo
www.wenatex.com.au
would disturbed sleep have an effect on the immune system and possibly autoimmune disorders eg. rheumatoid arthritis
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswould max prob less then 9 hrs of sleep in a 78 hr time frame severly change the effects
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs far as sleep study has to say, all sleep problems start with a lack of having dreams. When we are deprived from the luxury of having dreams (as opposite to a regular sleep), our brain has stopped its normal functioning and developed deceleration of brain waves just to protect itself, Prolonging dream deprivation (not just sleep) creates sleep disorders or even chronic sleep illness. Study conducted in mid-60s showed that a patient being deprived from seeing dreams for over a week was developing irreparable damage to his mental abilities. In other words, he became insane. It took weeks of psychological counselling and professional hypnotherapy to bring him back to normal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSleep Master
When I was 11 or 12 I used to get insomnia really badly and couldn't fall asleep for the whole night. Then at 13 I got diagnosed with depression then that turned to manic depression now apparently at 22 I have schizoaffective disorder. I do all nighters now because I'm convinced there's nothing that'll make me better or cure me of my exhaustion or tiredness. I'm in university though so that's also why. but it's a shame there aren't enough psychiatrist cause my psychiatrist I've had since I was 14 is awful and says really mean things and doesn't help me at all. So I agree that insomnia might have something to do with causing a mental illness and I remember I was so hard working before I got diagnosed with depression, I was such a hardworking student and all my teachers said that and it caused me at a young age to do all nighters to finish work and maybe that also caused my depression, not to mention a history of mental illnesses in my family. So I agree with lack of sleep causing mental illnesses. I need to sleep everyday at 8pm but I can't do it because I think better at night and I'm too tired in the morning to think, probably because there's nothing to eat in the morning, but I could go to the restaurant I suppose. I guess that's all I had to say though.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy son use to sleep walk and have night terrors as a child. In his senior year of high school he was having trouble sleeping so I had him see a counselor to help him with this problem. Most recently, he started college. The first week he was not sleeping because of stress and the excitement. He called me in the middle of the night rambling about his roommate stalking and wanting to harm him. I thought he was sleepwalking. Two days later he had a full blown psychotic episode, afraid of everyone and everything. He ended up in a mental institution.I am writing this comment from my hotel room. I am waiting for the doctor to stabilize him, so that I can take him home to continue his treatment. He has never shown any signs of a psychiatric disorder before this had happened. He was a happy, healthy, intelligent young adult excited to start college.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have had my job for over a year now and the hours are really crazy. I have never had a job with such fluctuating hours before. I work for a company called RGIS which is used by many retail companies to do their inventory. We work all hours of the day and it gets really crazy sometimes. I am also a college student and live on my own so I am constantly struggling to pay the bills and manage my time to keep everything balanced. I recently switched form online to campus classes in an attempt to focus myself more on my schoolwork and get better grades. I don't work nearly as much now but I have recently been having a lot of sleep related issues. The past couple days while working I have been falling asleep. One incident I was on a ladder in the backroom at one of the stores and literally almost just fell off the ladder because I had fallen asleep, not like my legs collapsed but like leaning to the side falling and I caught myself because I guess the falling feeling woke me up. Since starting this job I have also had a significant change in memory capacity which I thought was from a car accident that happened last February which was a couple months after I started the job, I was extremely tired hadn't slept in two days and made a u turn thinking it was all clear and got t-boned. They said I had a minor concussion and that was it I thought maybe it was worse than they thought and it had caused memory issues but now I'm thinking twice that maybe it has something to do with my sleep deprivation. My boyfriend lives with me and works night so sometimes if I don't have to work I will sleep with him all day but recently I haven't been able to do that. I just toss and turn and get out of bed a lot to go do something. Sometimes I get so frustrated trying to get myself to fall asleep I just say forget it and go clean or something because I have so much to do I feel like I am wasting my time just laying there when I know I am not going to fall asleep. a couple hours ago I woke up after not even sleeping for an hour and was completely freaked out about a dream that seemed so real even after I woke up. I now feel like I am not completely awake but not completely asleep like I'm in some sort of twilight zone. I am scared and I feel like my lack of proper sleep is causing me to go insane like to the point that if somebody knew I would have to be admitted. I need someone to talk to about this but I don't know who or where to go to find the help I need. The dream involved my boyfriend like he was somehow attacking me but it wasn't completely him.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHi Alicefayj14,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am sorry to hear about your son's battle with night terrors and now a full fledged psychotic episode. The stress of school coupled with a psychotic episode must be debilitating for your son, to say the least. You might want to consider neurotransmitter testing for your son to help determine biochemically what could be contributing to his psychosis. This type of testing provides a window into the chemical side of biology and may assist his physician in choosing an appropriate (and effective) therapeutic regimen. It isn't the sole answer in his care, but it may help. By the way the biological specimen used is typically urine so it is non-invasive. Just something to consider. If you have questions post them and I will try and provide/find the answers.