Sleep Loss and the Socio-Emotional Brain

Sleep loss amplifies basic emotional reactivity, increasing negative mood states (e.g., anxiety, depression, suicidality), yet impairing the accurate recognition and outward expression of emotions. Inadequate sleep further impacts higher-order, complex socio-emotional functioning, decreasing prosocial behaviors, increasing social withdrawal, triggering marital and workplace conflict, and enfeebling leadership skills. The emotional dysfunction experienced by sleep-deprived individuals, such as loneliness or lack of work motivation, can be ‘transmitted’ to well-rested others who come in contact with an under-slept individual, reflecting viral contagion. The underlying neural mechanisms include a loss of top-down prefrontal regulation of amygdala, aberrant cortical processing in the salience network, including insula and cingulate cortex, and sympathovagal changes in the body. Are you feeling emotionally fragile, moody, unpredictable, even ungenerous to those around you? Here, we review how and why these phenomena can occur as a result of insufficient sleep. Sleep loss disrupts a broad spectrum of affective processes, from basic emotional operations (e.g., recognition, responsivity, expression), through to high-order, complex socio-emotional functioning (e.g., loneliness, helping behavior, abusive behavior, and charisma). Translational insights further emerge regarding the pervasive link between sleep disturbance and psychiatric conditions, including anxiety, depression, and suicidality. More generally, such findings raise concerns regarding society’s mental (ill)health and the prevalence of insufficient and disrupted sleep. Are you feeling emotionally fragile, moody, unpredictable, even ungenerous to those around you? Here, we review how and why these phenomena can occur as a result of insufficient sleep. Sleep loss disrupts a broad spectrum of affective processes, from basic emotional operations (e.g., recognition, responsivity, expression), through to high-order, complex socio-emotional functioning (e.g., loneliness, helping behavior, abusive behavior, and charisma). Translational insights further emerge regarding the pervasive link between sleep disturbance and psychiatric conditions, including anxiety, depression, and suicidality. More generally, such findings raise concerns regarding society’s mental (ill)health and the prevalence of insufficient and disrupted sleep. an evidence-based treatment of insomnia that consists of a multicomponent intervention designed to target the behavioral and cognitive underpinnings of insomnia. abnormal sleep that can be described in measures of deficient sleep quantity, structure (e.g., sleep-cycle architecture), and/or sleep quality [e.g., spectral electroencephalogram (EEG) power]. the statistical association between the fMRI time series of blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal in two or more anatomically distinct brain regions. acting without sufficient deliberation. a type of sleep that consists of sleep stages N1–3 (previously NREM 1–4). Each NREM sleep stage has distinct (electro)physiological characteristics. High amplitude, slow-frequency synchronized EEG oscillations predominate in stage N3 (previously NREM 3 + 4, also known as slow-wave sleep, or deep sleep), and reflecta homeostatic sleep process. a unique phase of sleep characterized by high-frequency, low-amplitude desynchronized EEG oscillations, rapid eye movements, muscle paralysis, and vivid dreaming. going to bed later than intended due to self-choice. a metric of sleep evaluation often gauged from either subjective self-report (e.g., how satisfying and refreshing sleep was) or objective sleep features (e.g., sleep stage transitions, night-time awakenings/arousals, sleep stage amounts, and EEG sleep physiology). the reduction (but not total absence) of sleep in the prior night or nights, usually ranging from 1 to 6 hours of sleep reduction, relative to the norm of 8 hours. Typically, sleep restriction is chronic if it persists for more than 24 hours. an electrophysiological signature of slow (typically 0.5–4.0 Hz), synchronized, oscillatory neocortical activity. SWA is maximally expressed during NREM sleep and intensifies as a function of prior wake duration. the complete absence of sleep in the prior night or nights. in humans, relating to corporeal signals communicated by the spinal cord to brain regions that enable homeostatic coordination of bodily functions and associated behaviors.