The interaction of sleep and hormones on emotion functioning

Abstract

Insufficient sleep has been associated with deficits in emotion processing; sleepy individuals show increased emotional reactivity and decreased emotion regulation. Individual differences that predict performance after sleep loss has remained largely elusive. Concentrations of cortisol, progesterone, and testosterone are candidate predictors for variability in performance following sleep loss. These hormones are associated with emotion functioning under well-rested conditions and show interactions with sleep and circadian rhythms. The central aim of this dissertation was to investigate the interaction of natural sleep and hormones on measures of emotion functioning. Study 1 examined the role of cortisol in the relationship between sleep (across the first three years of university), and self reported emotion functioning in undergraduate students. Poor sleep was associated with worse emotion regulation and reactivity, and greater concentrations of cortisol and cortisol/DHEA-S. Consistently poor sleepers over three years, who had high cortisol, experienced the greatest difficulties with emotion regulation. Study 2 investigated the association between sleep satisfaction and objective measures of sleep on self-reported emotional functioning in a group of children and adolescents. Importantly, in girls who were dissatisfied sleepers, being further though puberty was associated with the greatest difficulties with emotion regulation. Study 3 examined natural sleep, hormones, and menstrual phase on processing emotional stimuli. Participants completed sleep diaries and wore actigraphy watches for 3-weeks and completed measures of emotion perception on two occasions in the laboratory, in different menstrual phases for women. The study supported dynamic relationships between hormone concentrations and various measures of sleep duration and quality on the processing of emotion stimuli. Many relationships emerged for threatening emotions, indicating that high concentrations of testosterone, progesterone or cortisol, combined with poor sleep resulted in increased sensitivity towards threat detection. Together these studies provide evidence that hormones are an important factor in understanding the link between poor sleep and emotion functioning. Hormone concentration plays a role in understanding individual differences in response to sleep loss and can compound with sleep loss to result in worse emotional outcomes. Consideration of hormonal factors may help identify certain at-risk populations for sleep related deficits or timing of interventions.