Anxious Throughout the Day? Maybe You Are Not Getting Enough Sleep

Turning Night Long: Sleep Deprivation enjoys a key role in enhancing anxiety, a new study suggests

If you are feeling grumpy, stressed and rough in the morning, might be it's followed by a sleepless night. Not only that you’ll fell more anxious than usual throughout the day, says a new study. Overnight sleep deficiency prompts anxiety the following morning in healthy adults, reports a new study from Journal of Neuroscience at annual meet of The Society for Neuroscience dated November 4. A sleepless night boost up the probabilities of ‘anticipatory anxiety’- feeling of worry or unease that one experiences before test or a meeting, study reveals.

Researchers at University of California-Berkeley observed the anxiety levels of 18 young and healthy adults. Anxiety test in the morning after a deep sleep night and a sleepless night respectively, revealed that after sleep deficient night, anxiety levels were 30% higher compared to anxiety levels after proper night rest. The anxiety scores on average, almost touched the levels possessed by person with ‘anxiety disorder’, concluded researchers Mathew Walker and Ben Simon.

Loss of sleep activates amygdala and insular cortex – regions of human brain handling emotions and fight or flight response, disabling prefrontal cortex – part of brain that lowers anxiety, functional MRI scan showed.

Walker says, “As the study discloses, if the sleep deprivation is factor responsible for anxiety, then it’s surely a treatable objective”. 

Chronic Worriers are more vulnerable to effects of sleep deficiency

People with anxiety disorder find harder to sleep, but this new study put forward the reverse relationship of anxiety and sleeplessness. “It’s a two-way interaction, shows this study. Sleep loss induces anxiety which in turn makes it difficult to fall asleep”, speaks sleep researcher Clifford Saper at Berth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston who was uninvolved in the study.

Those who are worrywarts or chronic worriers – people who are naturally anxious which can lead them towards anxiety disorder – are more vulnerable to effects of sleeplessness, researchers believes.

Also Read: Basking Every Other Day is Mantra for Deeper Tan

“This study exemplifies the importance of sleep to our mental health. It also showed us the relationship between psychiatric disorders and sleep, in sense of both treatment and cause”, says Mathew Walker about the research.

The result states that deprived sleep is ‘more than a symptom of anxiety’, and in some cases it plays a role of cause, said Ben Simon.

Citations and Sources: E. Ben Simon and M.P. Walker. Underslept and overanxious: Theneural correlates of sleep loss-induced anxiety in the human brain. dated, November 4, 2018, Annual Meeting Society for Neuroscience, San Diego.

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