‘Sleeping on it’ helps you better manage your emotions and mental health – here’s why

Instead of lying awake worrying, we’re often told to “sleep on it” when making decisions both big and small. And there’s actually a scientific basis for this advice. Sleep can influence our response to emotional situations, and helps us to manage our mental health.

To understand why sleep and emotions are so connected, it’s important to first understand what happens in the brain when we encounter something emotive.

Two main brain regions interact to create emotional responses. The first is the limbic system, which is located deep in our brain. This acts as our emotion centre, quickly evaluating a situation and helping us to decide how to react. Historically, this region may have been important for humanity’s survival, as it helps us react quickly in certain situations – if we encounter a dangerous predator, for example.

But most of the time we need to adjust our initial emotional response. This is where the second region – the prefrontal cortex – comes in. Located just behind our forehead, the prefrontal cortex helps us to increase or decrease our emotional responses as necessary. So if we see a predator (such as a bear) in the zoo, the prefrontal cortex tells us we don’t need to panic because it’s in an enclosure.

These regions need to be well-connected in order to effectively generate and adjust our emotional responses. This is where sleep comes in. When we’re sleep deprived, the connections between these areas weaken, making the reaction in the limbic system stronger. Sleep loss not only increases our reaction to stressful events during the day, it also makes these reactions harder to change. This may be particularly pronounced if you lose REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.

Studies show that getting poor sleep makes us more likely to choose less effective ways of managing our emotions which could have a knock-on effect for our mental health. Imagine you’re experiencing a difficult work problem. If you’re well rested, you are more likely to be able to effectively problem solve, fixing the issue. But if you’re sleep deprived, you might avoid dealing with the problem. Over time, this could have a negative effect on wellbeing.

Sleep is also crucial for processing and consolidating memories from our day. When we have emotional experiences, sleep both helps us remember these events and remove the associated feelings. This happens in REM sleep, when activity in most brain regions is similar to when we’re awake. By reactivating memories during REM sleep, the associated feelings can be removed from the content of the memory. This is why “sleeping on it” really can help you feel better in the morning. Indeed, studies have shown that, over time, improving sleep can lead to less anxiety, depression, and stress, and increased life satisfaction.

A good night’s sleep

If you want to keep your emotions and mental health in check, here are the best ways to get a good night’s sleep:

1. Maintain a consistent bedtime and wake time – even on your days off. This helps your body clock get into a routine, improving your sleep. Having a big shift in sleep time between your work and free days is known as “social jetlag”, which can be associated with increased anxiety.

2. Seek out natural light in the morning and avoid blue light in the evening. Our body clock is strongly affected by light. It impacts a part of the brain called the supra-chiasmatic nucleus, which releases a sleep hormone called melatonin. Getting natural light in the morning helps us to suppress melatonin, which improves our mood and makes us feel more alert. The blue light found in electronic devices also minimises melatonin. This means that using electronics in the evening can result in it taking longer for us to feel sleepy. So we recommend that you turn them off or set them to “night time mode” an hour before you go to bed.

3. Avoid certain substances – such as alcohol, caffeine and nicotine. Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants, which can interfere with our body’s drive to sleep. It’s best to avoid these, particularly in the afternoon and evening as our body gets ready for sleep. Alcohol also changes the structure of our sleep, making us more likely to wake up during the night. Studies also show using alcohol daily can decrease sleep quality, especially for people with anxiety.

4. Allow yourself time to wind down before bed. Make sure your bedroom is comfortable, cool, quiet and dark to minimise chances of being disturbed. Before bed, try using relaxation or mindfulness techniques, which have been linked with both better sleep quality and better overall mental health.

Getting a good night’s sleep can work wonders for improving our mental health. But it doesn’t stop there. Sleeping well can also improve our memory, attention and other thought processes. It also benefits several aspects of our physical health, including our weight and heart, making sleep an important priority for all aspects of our well-being.

 

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Influence of genetics on cannabis dependence in adolescent females

Researchers have identified that a variant in a particular gene, that is found in about one-third of people, increases vulnerability to THC in females. It also has a large-scale impact on brain regions and pathways responsible for processing reward.

The brain's endocannabinoid system regulates the activity of cannabinoids that are normally produced by the body to influence brain development and regulate mood as well as those from external sources, such as the psychoactive ingredient THC, also known as D9-tetrahydrocannabinol, which is found in cannabis.

An enzyme called fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) breaks down a cannabinoid called anandamide that is naturally found in the brain and is most closely related to THC, helping to remove it from circulation.

In the study which was published in 'Science Advances,' the researchers examined mice harbouring a human gene variant that causes FAAH to degrade more easily, increasing overall anandamide levels in the brain.

From the preclinical research by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators, they discovered that the variant resulted in an overactive reward circuit in female--but not male adolescent mice--that resulted in a higher preference for THC in females.

Dr. Caitlin Burgdorf, recent doctoral graduate from the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and the lead author said "Our study shows that a variant in the FAAH gene, which is found in about one-third of people, increases vulnerability to THC in females and has large-scale impact on brain regions and pathways responsible for processing reward."

"Our findings suggest that genetics can be a contributing factor for increased susceptibility to cannabis dependence in select populations," Caitlin added.

The result showcased that female mouse with the FAAH variant showed an increased preference for the environment in which they'd been exposed to THC over a neutral environment when they were exposed to the substance during adolescence, and the effect persisted into adulthood. 

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Brain zapping can help retrieve forgotten memories

Forgotten memories can be retrieved by stimulating a specific brain region using electrical currents, scientists have found for the first time.

The research,  shows that the left rostrolateral prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in memory recall. 

"We found dramatically improved memory performance when we increased the excitability of this region," said a Prof.

The left rostrolateral prefrontal cortex is important for high-level thought, including monitoring and integrating information processed in other areas of the brain, he said. 

This area is located behind the left side of the forehead, between the eyebrow and the hairline.
"We think this brain area is particularly important in accessing knowledge that you formed in the past and in making decisions about it," said the Prof.

The psychologists conducted experiments with three groups of people whose average age was 20. Each group contained 13 women and 11 men.

Participants were shown a series of 80 words on a computer screen. For each word, participants were instructed to imagine either themselves or another person interacting with the word, depending on whether the words "self" or "other" also appeared on the screen.

The following day, the participants returned to the laboratory for three tests -- one of their memory, one of their reasoning ability and one of their visual perception.

Each participant wore a device that sent a weak electrical current through an electrode on the scalp to decrease or increase the excitability of neurons in the left rostrolateral prefrontal cortex.
Increasing their excitability makes neurons more likely to fire, which enhances the connections between neurons, he said.

For the first half of the hour-long study, all participants received "sham" stimulation -- meaning that the device was turned on just briefly, to give the sensation that something was happening, but then turned off so that no electrical stimulation was applied.

This allowed the researchers to measure how well each participant performed the tasks under normal conditions.

For the next 30 minutes, one group of participants received an electrical current that increased their neurons' excitability, the second group received current that suppressed neuron activity and the third group received only the sham stimulation.

The researchers analysed which group had the best recall of the words they saw the previous day
Memory scores for the group whose neurons received excitatory stimulation during the second half of the study were 15.4 percentage points higher than their scores when they received the sham stimulation.

Scores for those who received fake stimulation during both sessions increased by only 2.6 percentage points from the first to the second session -- a statistically insignificant change that was likely was due to their increased familiarity with the task, researchers said.

Scores for the group whose neuron activity was temporarily suppressed increased by just five percentage points, which was not statistically significant, researchers said.

"Our previous neuroimaging studies showed the left rostrolateral prefrontal cortex is highly engaged during memory retrieval," he said.

"Now the fact that people do better on this memory task when we excite this region with electrical stimulation provides causal evidence that it contributes to the act of memory retrieval," he said. 

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