Sleep and emotion regulation: An organizing, integrative review

Abstract

A growing body of research suggests that disrupted sleep is a robust risk and maintenance factor for a range of psychiatric conditions. One explanatory mechanism linking sleep and psychological health is emotion regulation. However, numerous components embedded within this construct create both conceptual and empirical challenges to the study of emotion regulation. These challenges are reflected in most sleep-emotion research by way of poor delineation of constructs and insufficient distinction among emotional processes. Most notably, a majority of research has focused on emotions generated as a consequence of inadequate sleep rather than underlying regulatory processes that may alter these experiences. The current review utilizes the process model of emotion regulation as an organizing framework for examining the impact of sleep upon various aspects of emotional experiences. Evidence is provided for maladaptive changes in emotion at multiple stages of the emotion generation and regulation process. We conclude with a call for experimental research designed to clearly explicate which points in the emotion regulation process appear most vulnerable to sleep loss as well as longitudinal studies to follow these processes in relation to the development of psychopathological conditions.

Keywords: Affect; Emotion; Emotion regulation; Mood; Psychopathology; Sleep.