Sleep Plays Vital Role in Emotions.
Feeling cranky after a long night? It’s probably because your brain’s ability to regulate emotions has been compromised by lack of sleep. Researchers studied 18 participants and found that after a wakeful night, participants performed badly on tests designed to gauge their reactions to either neutral or emotional images, indicating a lower degree of regulatory processing. The findings suggest that lack of sleep appears to compromise the brain’s ability to decide what is important, and it highlights sleep’s vital role in maintaining good emotional balance and mental health.
Journal of Neuroscience, December 2015