Rest Well Journal
Sleep loss can drain positive emotion
Preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis of experimentsSleep loss can drain positive emotionA review of 154 experiments found sleep loss reduced positive feelings and increased anxiety symptoms, strengthening causal evidence for short-term emotional effects without establishing diagnoses.
Published online in December 2023 and in an April 2024 issue, this preregistered review combined 154 experiments involving 5,717 participants. Researchers examined total sleep deprivation, shortened sleep, and repeated awakenings, rather than relying only on people reporting their usual sleep habits. Across these forms of sleep loss, positive feelings declined and anxiety symptoms increased; responses involving negative feelings and depressive symptoms were less consistent. The evidence supports a causal influence of experimentally disrupted sleep on short-term emotional functioning. It does not show that a bad night inevitably causes an anxiety disorder or depression, and studies in healthy participants cannot fully represent clinical populations. The useful takeaway is that protecting sleep supports emotional well-being, while persistent mental-health symptoms deserve attention beyond sleep habits alone.
Sources: DOI record ↗ · PubMed record ↗ · Read the original paper ↗
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