As kids, we all have heard that sleep in a person’s life is very essential. Along with the right amount of daily exercises & maintenance of a good balanced diet, good sleep must be kept in check in-order to maintain equilibrium. Many practioners have made a sleep schedule that is advised to be maintained : for adults 7-8hrs of sleep is enough to maintain equilibrium, following that teenagers are advised to sleep for 8-10hrs & to end it children (toddlers & infants) are required to sleep for 11-12yrs.
Now, we are going to be looking into some studies to prove that maintaining a good sleep cycle is just as important as maintaining a good balanced diet.
Sleep & Emotion regulation :
There has been studies about how sleep & emotion regulation are interconnected with each other that being that the sleep is being regulated by the hypothalamus & the limbic system controls the emotion regulation in an individual. In basic sciences its being said that the brain has several neural networks that communicate with each other by sending messages to fulfill a function.
So, when there is lack of sleep the neurons are unable to communicate effectively so that causes a negative release of neuron communication that effects the limbic system because of which constant agitation, frustration & constant feeling of low energy are the signs of sleep deprivation.
Also its been said that, “individuals who have constant sleep deprivation enter sleep debt” (Saghir et al., 2018), sleep debt according to the study made in 2018 that can be corelated with moods like - anger & short temper. Research has been done that sleep debt that cause psychological distress like anxiety & depression.
To end this study on a note, that to prove that sleep does cause psychological distress by (Bauducco et al, 2018) where there were 2767 students who ranged between 12 to 16. This study has shown that the less time the students sleep caused norm breaking behavior as stated by the experimenter/researcher. 52% of the samples were male.
(Randler et al, 2018) quoted that “even one sleepless night will lead to loss of function”. There were studies that suggested that men have more physical & verbal aggression because of lack of sleep while women in the study tend to be vulnerable to anxiety & fatigue. Moreover this emotions will be externalized meaning it would be much more physically expressed.
Conclusion
Amygdala is agreed upon that its the most vital area of the brain when it comes to controlling the emotional area of an individual. Its main function lies in providing role in sleep. In sleepless nights that functional deficiency occurs between amygdala & ventral anterior cingulate cortex which results in reduced level of mood. Also to add on, that sleep debt induces increase in emotional instability. REM sleep deprivation leads to changes in brain regions that alters receptor roles leading to mood swings/alterations.
References:
Colten, H. R., Altevogt, B. M., & US), M. (2022). Sleep Physiology. Nih.gov; National Academies Press (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK19956/
Good. (2021, March 29). Good Sleep for Good Health. NIH News in Health. https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2021/04/good-sleep-good-health
Saghir, Z., Syeda, J. N., Muhammad, A. S., & Balla Abdalla, T. H. (2018). The Amygdala, Sleep Debt, Sleep Deprivation, and the Emotion of Anger: A Possible Connection? Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.2912
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