Rapid‐eye‐movement (REM) sleep‐associated post‐nap enhancement of affective inhibitory control in depressed college students (original) (raw)

Effects of REM sleep during a daytime nap on emotional perception in individuals with and without depression

Journal of Affective Disorders, 2019

Background: It has been theoretically proposed that alteration in sleep physiology may contribute to the development of biased emotional processing featured in depression. The current study investigated the role of sleep and especially REM in modulating perception of emotional faces in depressed versus non-depressed individuals using a napping paradigm. Methods: Forty-six individuals with major depressive disorder and 66 age-and education-matched healthy controls completed an emotional face perception task before and after random assignment to one of the three intention-to-treat (ITT) conditions, namely 30-min-nap, 90-min-nap and wake. To delineate the effects of REM, as-treated (30-min-nap, 90-min-REM-nap, 90-min-noREM-nap and wake) analyses were also conducted. Results: Repeated measures multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) showed a significant Time *Group *Condition interaction on angry faces for both analyses of ITT (p = .017) and AT (p = .027). Pairwise comparison with Bonferroni corrections revealed a significant increase in the intensity rating of angry faces only after 90-min-REM-nap in the depressed group. Correlational analyses convergingly showed that the increase of intensity rating of angry faces was associated with the proportion of REM sleep in the depressed group, p = .035. Limitations: The observed effect of REM sleep during daytime napping may not represent the effect of nighttime REM sleep in depression. Conclusions: We provide the first evidence of the association of daytime sleep, particularly REM sleep, with a more negative perception of angry faces exclusively in individuals with depression. The differentiated impact of sleep observed may contribute to the development of altered emotional processing in depression.

Sleep and sadness: exploring the relation among sleep, cognitive control, and depressive symptoms in young adults

Sleep medicine, 2014

Sleep disturbance is a common feature of depression. However, recent work has found that individuals who are vulnerable to depression report poorer sleep quality compared to their low-risk counterparts, suggesting that sleep disturbance may precede depression. In addition, both sleep disturbance and depression are related to deficits in cognitive control processes. Thus we examined if poor sleep quality predicts subsequent increases in depressive symptoms and if levels of cognitive control mediated this relation. Thirty-five undergraduate students participated in two experimental sessions separated by 3 weeks. Participants wore an actigraph watch between sessions, which provided an objective measure of sleep patterns. We assessed self-reported sleep quality and depressive symptoms at both sessions. Last, individuals completed an exogenous cuing task, which measured ability to disengage attention from neutral and negative stimuli during the second session. Using path analyses, we fou...

Sleep and slow-wave activity in depressed adolescent boys: a preliminary study

Sleep Medicine

Objective: Adolescence is a vulnerable period of life that is characterized by increasing incidence of depression. Sleep disturbance is one of the diagnostic symptoms of depressive disorder. Adolescence is also characterized by dramatic maturational changes in sleep and its regulation. The goal of this study was to assess sleep macroarchitecture and slow-wave activity (SWA) in depressed adolescent boys. Methods: Eight non-medicated adolescent boys meeting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria for depressive disorder and 10 age-matched healthy controls (average age 16.0 years) underwent polysomnography in their home environment for two consecutive nights. Sleep macroarchitecture, SWA, and SWA dissipation were assessed in all subjects. Results: Depressed boys showed a flattened pattern of SWA dissipation through the night. SWA power was lower during the first non-rapid eye movement (NREM) episode in the frontal derivation and higher during the third NREM episode in the central derivation in the group of depressed boys as compared to healthy boys. The SWA dissipation pattern correlated with the severity of depressive symptoms, and the correlation was strongest in the frontal derivation. In addition, total sleep time was shorter in patients as compared to the control group, but no other differences were found in the macroarchitecture of sleep. Conclusion: Depression in adolescent boys is characterized by more evenly distributed SWA through the night as compared to healthy subjects, and we showed for the first time that this pattern of SWA distribution is associated with severity of depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that homeostatic regulation of sleep may be impaired in adolescent depression.

Sleep onset abnormalities in depressed adolescents

Biological Psychiatry, 1996

Sleep measures were obtained in 16 depressed and 21 control adolescents following 1 week of adherence to a uniformly imposed and strictly enforced sleep~wake schedule. Three nights of baseline electroencephalographic (EEG) sleep on the same 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM schedule revealed prolonged sleep latency and reduced rapid eye movement (REM) latency in the depressed adolescents. Following baseline measures, sleep was restricted for 2 nights (10:00 PM-4:00 AM) and measures of recovery sleep were obtained showing further sleep latency differences. There was no evidence for delta sleep changes or sleep continuity differences in depressed adolescents. These results suggest that control over sleep/wake schedules is an important methodological issue in adolescent sleep studies. Furthermore, the findings are consistent with a larger body of evidence indicating that dysregulation near sleep onset represents a primary psychobiological change in early-onset depression.

The influence of REM sleep and SWS on emotional memory consolidation in participants reporting depressive symptoms

Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 2018

Negative emotional memory bias is thought to play a causal role in the onset and maintenance of major depressive disorder. Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep has been shown to selectively consolidate negative emotional memories in healthy participants, and is greater in quantity and density in depressed patients. Slow-Wave Sleep (SWS) is typically associated with the consolidation of non-emotional memories. However, the effects of REM sleep and SWS on emotional memory consolidation have not been investigated in participants reporting depressive symptoms. In this study, we recruited two groups of healthy participants; one reporting mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms, and another reporting minimal depressive symptoms (assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory; BDI-II). Using a within-subjects split-night design, we measured consolidation of positive, neutral and negative images across a 3 h retention interval rich in either REM sleep or SWS. We found a significant sleep condition x i...

The Bidirectional Association Between Daytime Affect and Nighttime Sleep in Youth With Anxiety and Depression

Journal of Pediatric …, 2011

Objective This study examines relationships between affect and sleep in youth with affective disorders using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Methods Participants included 94 youth, ages 8-16 (M ¼ 11.73, 53% female) years with an anxiety disorder only (n ¼ 23), primary major depressive disorder (with and without a secondary anxiety diagnoses; n ¼ 42), and healthy controls (n ¼ 29). A cell phone EMA protocol assessed affect and actigraphy measured sleep. Results The patterns of bidirectional relationships between affect and sleep differed across diagnostic groups. Higher daytime positive affect and positive to negative affect ratios were associated with more time in bed during the subsequent night for youth with primary depression and less time in bed for youth with anxiety only. More time asleep was associated with more positive affect for both diagnostic groups the following day. Conclusions This relationship may be important to consider in the treatment of youth affective disorders.

Increased frontal sleep slow wave activity in adolescents with major depression

NeuroImage: Clinical, 2015

Sleep slow wave activity (SWA), the major electrophysiological characteristic of deep sleep, mirrors both cortical restructuring and functioning. The incidence of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) substantially rises during the vulnerable developmental phase of adolescence, where essential cortical restructuring is taking place. The goal of this study was to assess characteristics of SWA topography in adolescents with MDD, in order to assess abnormalities in both cortical restructuring and functioning on a local level. All night high-density EEG was recorded in 15 patients meeting DSM-5 criteria for MDD and 15 sex-and age-matched healthy controls. The actual symptom severity was assessed using the Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R). Topographical power maps were calculated based on the average SWA of the first non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep episode. Depressed adolescents exhibited significantly more SWA in a cluster of frontal electrodes compared to controls. SWA over frontal brain regions correlated positively with the CDRS-R subscore "morbid thoughts". Self-reported sleep latency was significantly higher in depressed adolescents compared to controls whereas sleep architecture did not differ between the groups. Higher frontal SWA in depressed adolescents may represent a promising biomarker tracing cortical regions of intense use and/or restructuring.

Early return to REM sleep after nocturnal awakening in depression

Biological Psychiatry, 1992

Sixteen male outpatients with major depression and 20 age-equated healthy controls were awakened from rapid eye movement (REM) sleep between 1:30 and 3:30 AM, and the rapidity of return to REM sleep was determined. The time it took to return to REM sleep was reduced in depressives compared with controls: 6•.6 (17.9 SD) min versus 80.6 (24.9 SD) rain, respectively (p = 0.01). The time elapsed until the return to REM sleep was significantly correlated with baseline REM latency in controls (but not depressives). In contrast, return to REM time was significantly correlated with depression severity scores in depressives (but not controls). There was no evidence to support the hypothesis that the more rapid return to REId sleep in depression was caused by a slow wave sleep deficit. The mechanism underlying the rapid return of REM sleep in depression thus may be related to a severity-linked disturbance, such as a proposed increase in REM "pressure."

Sleep Deprivation in Depressed Adolescents and Psychiatric Controls

Journal of The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 1993

Up to 70% of depressed adults have an antidepressant response to sleep deprivation. To study the effects of sleep deprivation on depression severity and level of arousal in psychiatrically disturbed adolescents, we deprived 17 patients of sleep for 36 hours. Severity of depression and subjective arousal were assessed at baseline, during sleep deprivation, and after 1 night's recovery sleep. We found that severely depressed adolescents showed a significant decrease in depression severity, whereas depressed patients in remission and psychiatric controls worsened after sleep deprivation. Patients with depression in remission showed a significant decrease in subjective arousal after sleep deprivation. In contrast to findings in depressed adults, the effects of sleep deprivation persisted after 1 night of recovery sleep, and diurnal variation of mood did not predict response to sleep deprivation. These findings are consistent with those reported in the adult literature, and suggest a common psychophysiology between adult and adolescent depression.

Examining the effects of sleep delay on depressed males and females and healthy controls

Journal of sleep research, 2014

Individuals with major depressive disorder typically exhibit sleep electroencephalograpy abnormalities which have been shown to vary by sex. Recent research has shown that depressed males display deficits in slow wave sleep and delta electroencephalograph (EEG) activity that are not apparent in depressed females. This may suggest that males and females with depression vary with respect to their homeostatic regulation of sleep. Utilizing archival data, the present study examined the effects of a 3-h sleep delay, which represents a mild sleep challenge, on slow wave activity in healthy controls and individuals with depression. All participants slept in the laboratory for three sequential nights. On the third night in the laboratory, the participants' bedtime was delayed by 3 h. Slow wave activity was calculated utilizing power spectral analysis and compared across groups. Following the sleep delay, males with depression exhibited the lowest slow wave activity compared to all other...