Sleep Loss Linked to Psychiatric Disorders

I recently ran across a new study that illuminates the negative effects of sleep deprivation on emotional regulation (a link to it as at the bottom of this article). One of my first posts was on the importance of sleep to our emotional well-being. Basically, the sleep deprived brain is not able to regulate emotion. In the well-rested brain, the amygdala (a region of the brain that puts the body on alert so we can protect ourselves in times of danger) is functioning normally. However, in the sleep-deprived brain the amygdala gets stuck in overdrive, so to speak. Normally, when the brain perceives there is a threat, the amygdala becomes active but the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in our higher reasoning and logical thinking abilities, is able to step in and regulate the amygdala (and thus our emotions) when it turns out that a fight or flight response is not warranted.

Thus, a sleep-deprived person is likely to overreact to relatively minor irritations with more intense emotions than are warranted. As they state in the article "...while a good night's rest can regulate your mood and help you cope with the next day's emotional challenges, sleep deprivation does the opposite by excessively boosting the part of the brain most closely connected to depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders."

It's likely that most mood problems such as depression and anxiety have a reciprocal-causal relationship with sleep deprivation. Thus, an anxious person is likely to lose some sleep and, as he/she becomes sleep-deprived, his/her anxious responses to stimuli are likely to increase. Then the person has even more difficulties sleeping because of the heightened anxiety and so on.

So, if you become sleep-deprived, for whatever reason, it's likely to increase negative emotions such as depression, anger, and anxiety. Not that increased sleep is a total panacea, but it will only help your mood (and your cognitive functioning like memory) when you are able to get more sleep.

Here's a link to the full article: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/10/22_sleeploss.shtml

Easy Technique for Practicing Breathing

In the last post, I discussed the importance of using the breath to anchor your awareness to the present. One easy way to practice this is when you are stuck at a traffic light. This often frustrating situation provides a golden opportunity to practice breathing. So, the next time you are stuck at a red light, use this as a cue to practice slow, deep abdominal breathing. Sit up straight so that you can open up your lungs. Keep your eyes open because you don't want to get too relaxed! Relax your muscles. Ease your grip on the steering wheel, inhale deeply for a slow count of 5, hold your breath for about 2 seconds, then slowly exhale for a slow count of 5.

If you do this, you will find that a situation that normally causes increased tension has now become an opportunity for increased relaxation. As you start to view traffic lights as an opportunity to practice relaxation, chances are that they will not annoy so much in the future. I'll go even further - you might even look forward to getting caught in a traffic light so that you can practice your relaxed breathing. It might sound very peculiar, but it's what has happened to me as I have practiced this technique over the past couple of years. Give it a try - you have nothing to lose - except maybe some stress!