Investigating the Effect of Sleep Deprivation on Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal-Axis Functioning and Attentional Biases to Emotional Information: An Experimental Study.

Effect of sleep deprivation on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis functioning and attentional biases to emotional information;Psychology;Social Sciences;Psychology

Vargas, IvanDrake, Christopher L ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Effect of sleep deprivation on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis functioning and attentional biases to emotional information;    Psychology;    Social Sciences;    Psychology;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/120796/ivargas_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Sleep deprivation is associated with a number of negative health outcomes, such as stress-related disorders (e.g., depression and insomnia). However, the mechanisms by which sleep deprivation leads to poor health are unclear.Therefore, directly examining the consequences of sleep deprivation and how they may inform our understanding of stress-related disorders is a major public health concern. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the effect of total sleep deprivation on diurnal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis (HPA-axis) and attentional biases to emotional information. Participants included 40 healthy young adults between the ages of 18 – 29. Participants were randomized into either a sleep deprivation condition or a sleep control condition. Following the experimental night, all participants completed cognitive testing, online self-report questionnaires, and a laboratory stress protocol (i.e., Trier Social Stress Test). Salivary cortisol was collected in the morning during the first hour after awakening and during the stress protocol. During the week prior to coming in to the laboratory, participants wore actigraphy devices and completed a sleep diary to assess their baseline sleep patterns. Our data indicated that there were significant group differences in cortisol following the laboratory stressor. Specifically, the results demonstrated that participants in the sleep deprivation condition had greater baseline (i.e., pre-stress) cortisol, but that it was participants in the control condition that showed greater cortisol reactivity to the stressor. Participants in the sleep-deprived condition instead had a blunted endocrine response to stress. Furthermore, our findings revealed that while participants in the control condition demonstrated a traditional rise and fall of cortisol following awakening (i.e., cortisol awakening response), the participants in the sleep deprivation condition showed no increases in morning cortisol. Finally, the data revealed that while controlling for insomnia symptoms, sleep deprivation was not associated with a greater negative bias.In contrast, sleep deprivation predicted a significantly reduced positive attentional bias, but only among participants with low self-reported sleep difficulties. The current study was the first to use a carefully controlled sleep manipulation to examine the specific physiological (i.e., HPA-axis) and psychological (attentional biases) consequences of sleep deprivation.