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Sleep deprivation can unlock doors to many unwanted consequences. A lack of sleep has been linked to a variety of health conditions, ranging from anxiety to coronary artery disease to weight difficulties.
According to one study, lack of sleep can make us feel not just exhausted but also potentially damage our emotional functioning, diminish positive moods, and put us at risk of developing anxiety.
The study was released via the journal Psychological Bulletin, developed over 50 years of research of sleep deprivation and mood. It emphasised the importance of getting sufficient sleep and how it can increase or decrease your quality of life.
Relationship between sleep deprivation and low mental health
Palmer and colleagues examined data from 154 studies spanning 50 years with a total of 5,715 participants.
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Researchers interrupted participants' sleep for a couple of nights in all of these experiments. Participants were required to remain awake for extended periods of time in several tests.
In some cases, they were allowed less sleep than usual, and in others, they were awakened intermittently throughout the night.
Following the sleep manipulation, each study examined a minimum of one emotion-related variable, such as participants' self-reported mood, their reactivity to emotional stimuli, and assessments of anxiety and depression symptoms.
“In our largely sleep-deprived society, quantifying the effects of sleep loss on emotion is critical for promoting psychological health,” Palmer stated.
“This study represents the most comprehensive synthesis of experimental sleep and emotion research to date, and provides strong evidence that periods of extended wakefulness, shortened sleep duration, and nighttime awakenings adversely influence human emotional functioning,” she explained further.
Overall, the researchers discovered that each of the three kinds of sleep deprivation led to fewer positive feelings among individuals, such as happiness, joy, and contentment, as well as higher anxiety indicators such as a quick heart rate and greater worrying.
“This occurred even after short periods of sleep loss, like staying up an hour or two later than usual or after losing just a few of hours of sleep,” Palmer added. “We also found that sleep loss increased anxiety symptoms and blunted arousal in response to emotional stimuli.”
Limitations of the study
The study does have certain drawbacks. The majority of those who took part were young people, with an average age of around 23, implying that future studies should include more diverse age samples.
Learning how sleep deprivation impacts different age groups may provide a more comprehensive picture of its impact on mental health.
“The implications of this research for individual and public health are considerable in a largely sleep-deprived society. Industries and sectors prone to sleep loss, such as first responders, pilots and truck drivers, should develop and adopt policies that prioritize sleep to mitigate against the risks to daytime function and well-being,” Palmer added.
Other future research directions could include investigating individual differences to see why some people are more vulnerable to the consequences of sleep loss. It can also try examining the impacts of sleep loss across various societies, as most of the study's findings in the present research took place in the US and in Europe, as stated by the researchers.
Sleep, as per other studies, not only helps you feel more alert during the day, but also helps your body fight illness and viruses. Individuals who are sleep deprived are more likely to become ill than those who get enough sleep, as per some reports. Sleep also helps maintain optimum cognitive and emotional functioning for many humans, as per some studies.
