Sleep Loss and the Socio-Emotional Brain

Eti Ben Simon; Raphael Vallat; Christopher M Barnes; Matthew P Walker

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2020.02.003

Sleep Loss and the Socio-Emotional Brain

Trends Cogn Sci. 2020 Jun;24(6):435-450. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.02.003. Epub 2020 Apr 14.

Authors

Eti Ben Simon¹, Raphael Vallat¹, Christopher M Barnes², Matthew P Walker³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USA; Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USA.
² Foster School of Business, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-3226, USA.
³ Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USA; Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USA. Electronic address: mpwalker@berkeley.edu.

PMID: 32299657
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.02.003

Abstract

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.

Keywords: emotional processing; sleep; sleep deprivation; social behavior.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Anxiety
Brain*
Emotions*
Humans
Loneliness
Sleep
Sleep Deprivation*