The importance of a good night’s sleep is often overlooked when it comes to our mental health. However, growing research suggests that our emotions and sleep patterns have a significant influence on each other.
On one hand, negative emotions like stress can keep us awake at night, making it hard to get restful sleep. Conversely, a lack of sleep can make us feel less prepared to handle stressful situations during the day.
This article dives into the relationship between REM sleep and how we regulate our emotions to help you better understand the connection.
What Happens When You Sleep?
When you sleep, your body stays surprisingly active, helping you to re-energize, restore your daily functioning, and recover from the effects of the day. Your brain also stays busy storing memories, maintaining flexibility to learn new things, and giving you the ability to better control your emotions.
There are two types of sleep: REM sleep (also called rapid eye movement sleep) and non-REM sleep.
What Is REM Sleep?
REM sleep is the phase during your nightly sleep cycle when most of your dreams occur. This sleep stage makes up about 25% of your total night’s sleep and comes in waves throughout the night.
REM sleep is characterized by an increase in:
- Brain activity
- Breathing
- Heart rate
- Blood pressure
- Eye movement
How Is REM Sleep Linked to Mental Health?
Studies show that REM sleep is involved in how we process our emotions during sleep. When our REM sleep is disrupted, it can impact our ability to healthily regulate our emotions during the day.
The amount of REM sleep we get overnight can impact our ability to:
- Control our behavior
- Recognize our emotions
- Have confidence in how we manage our emotions
How Does Sleep Affect Emotional Regulation?
Emotional regulation refers to your ability to manage your emotions and reactions to everyday stressors. Emotional dysregulation has been linked to poor sleep quality, whereas good sleep quality is known to be crucial to both your mental and physical health.
When you are deprived of good sleep, your brain has less capacity to regulate your emotions. This can lead to:
- Outbursts of anger
- Intense mood swings
- Impulsive behavior
- Chronic irritability
- Depression and anxiety
Factors Related to Emotion-Related Sleep Problems
While the exact causes of emotion-driven sleep problems can be complex to untangle, there are 3 things that can make you more vulnerable to an emotional sleep disorder such as insomnia.
Faulty circadian clock
Everyone has a circadian rhythm, which refers to the internal clock that regulates our alertness and sleepiness by responding to changes in daylight. When this internal clock doesn’t match up with your actual sleep schedule, it can make you more prone to sleep and mental health problems.
Research has shown that genes related to your body’s daily cycle of sleeping and waking have been linked to mental health disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and seasonal affective disorder. Additional evidence has made correlations between circadian clock genes and REM sleep.
Emotional memory processing
REM sleep is important for processing memories that cause an emotional response. Data from sleep scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, shows that this normal emotional processing during REM sleep may actually break down in people with depression. REM sleep may instead strengthen negative memories in individuals with major depression and keep them from retaining positive memories.
Couple this with the fact that 75% of people with depression have trouble falling or staying asleep, and sleep and emotional regulation problems can become a vicious cycle.
Recurrent nightmares
In people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the emotional processing that takes place during REM sleep isn’t as effective at suppressing memories associated with fear. This could be why people with PTSD often experience the same fearful dreams repeatedly.
The neurotransmitter that’s responsible for our “fight or flight” responses (norepinephrine) is typically at its lowest during sleep. In people with PTSD, levels of this neurotransmitter don’t decrease during sleep like they do for the general population. This means that people with PTSD may be more alert during REM sleep.
Ways to Improve Your Sleep Quality
Because sleep plays such an important role in regulating your emotions, it’s important to make sure you’re getting the best sleep possible. This is especially important for people who are managing emotional disorders.
You can improve your sleep hygiene with the following tips:
- Go to bed and wake up around the same times each day, even on weekends, to help set your internal clock
- Avoid eating large meals or drinking caffeine before bed
- Make sure your bedroom is comfortable enough to support good sleep. This means having a quiet and dark space as well as a comfortable bed.
- Reserve your bed for sleep only. Don’t use it to answer work calls, watch late-night TV, or complete other activities you might associate with being awake.
- Stay active during the day. Regular physical activity can help you fall asleep more easily.
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