After one night without sleep, it was harder to calm reactions to distressing images
In a lab, 60 adults stayed awake overnight or rested. The difference disappeared after accounting for mood and sleepiness.
The key idea
After a sleepless night, regulating the response to negative images was harder, although the difference disappeared after accounting for mood and fatigue.
The study, in plain language
Feeling an emotion and trying to regulate it are different tasks. In a sleep laboratory, some adults stayed awake overnight while others rested. They then completed attention, memory, and emotion-regulation tasks using images.
The group that did not sleep had more difficulty reducing its response to negative images when asked. That difference disappeared after accounting for mood or sleepiness. Other emotional-perception tasks did not show the same pattern, although there were more attention lapses and slower responses.
What they found
- The no-sleep group had more difficulty reducing its response to negative images when asked.
- That difference disappeared when the analysis accounted for mood or sleepiness.
- Other tasks showed no bias toward positive or negative images, although there were more attention lapses and slower responses.
Something to think about
When you sleep poorly, notice what changes: your mood, fatigue, or reactions? In this study, the difficulty calming a response was no longer apparent after accounting for how people felt and how sleepy they were.
How they studied it
At a laboratory at Washington State University in the United States, 60 healthy adults aged 22 to 37 were assigned to a night without sleep or a rested comparison group. Fifty-nine were included in the analysis. They were supervised for four days and three nights and completed tasks involving attention, memory, categorization, and emotion regulation.
What the study cannot show
- The sample was small, healthy, and studied in a controlled setting.
- The study tested one sleepless night and did not confirm the strategy with later questions.
- The main difference was no longer clear after accounting for mood or sleepiness.
The original study
Total sleep deprivation reduces top-down regulation of emotion without altering bottom-up affective processing
Source under CC BY 4.0. English adaptation and explanation by PaperFlow, with AI assistance. The text has been reorganized for a general audience; it is not the complete paper and does not imply endorsement by its authors.
One study alone does not represent a field's consensus. Educational content does not replace professional advice. Report a possible error.
