Do you know lack of sleep can make your feel uneasy and cranky in the morning.
The research undertaken by Tel Aviv University reveals that the neurological mechanism is responsible for disturbed emotion regulation and anxiety can be increased due to only one night's lack of sleep.
The research revealed that the changes in sleep deprivation can impose on our ability to regulate emotions and allocate brain resources for cognitive processing.
Lead researcher Prof. Talma Hendler of TAU's Sagol School of Neuroscience said they assumed that sleep loss would intensify the processing of emotional images and thus impede brain capacity for executive functions.
They were actually surprised to find that it significantly impacts the processing of both neutral and emotionally-charged images.
After carrying out the experiments, the team of researchers found that participants after only one night of lack of sleep were distracted by every single image (neutral and emotional), while well-rested participants were only distracted by emotional images.
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The effect was indicated by activity change in the amygdala, a major limbic node responsible for emotional processing in the brain.
Prof. Hendler pointed out that , without sleep, the mere recognition of what is an emotional and what is a neutral event is disrupted, adding that this can result in biased cognitive processing and poor judgment as well as in anxiety.
The study emphasized on the vital role sleep plays in maintaining good emotional balance in life for promoting mental health.
The study is published in the Journal Neuroscience.