Sleep Research
Fostering Fortitude: How Sleep and Independent Thinking Build Emotional Resilience
In this blog, we delve into a groundbreaking study led by Emma C. Sullivan, published in Cortex, which explores the factors that foster resilience in the face of chronic stress. This research emphasizes the crucial role of sleep health and cognitive processes in maintaining mental well-being, particularly in the context of global challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic.
A groundbreaking study by lead author Emma C. Sullivan, published in Cortex, aims to elucidate the factors that promote resilience when enduring chronic stress, emphasizing the importance of sleep health and cognitive processes for mental well-being.
Chronic stress is a major risk factor for mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. However, not everyone experiencing chronic stress develops psychological disturbances, revealing individual differences that confer resilience. Understanding these factors provides crucial insight into reducing the global burden of mental illness.
This research examined how adaptive thinking strategies that positively reframe negative experiences (called adaptive cognitive emotion regulation or CER) and sleep quality influenced depression and anxiety levels at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study analyzed data from 1600 adults in the US who self-reported depression, anxiety, sleep quality, and CER strategy use between March and November 2020. This allowed the researchers to investigate how adaptive thinking and sleep quality impact mental health outcomes when experiencing an uncontrollable, long-term stressor in the real world.
The findings revealed that more frequent use of adaptive CER strategies and higher sleep quality were independently associated with lower depression and anxiety levels during the pandemic. However, only sleep quality significantly predicted anxiety when accounting for both factors.
The benefits of adaptive CER use for combating depression were consistent across different sleep quality levels. This highlights the independent importance of adaptive thinking and good sleep in promoting resilience to emotional distress during chronic stress.
The study relied solely on subjective self-reports, preventing comparison to objective sleep and physiological measures of emotion regulation. The COVID-19 pandemic also represents an exceptional stressor, making comparisons difficult. Significant work remains to unravel the precise mechanisms linking sleep, cognition, and affective well-being.
Neurobit is spearheading cutting-edge solutions to overcome these hurdles and catalyze advances in sleep and mental health research.
Neurobit PSG uses AI and deep learning for accurate sleep event labeling for sleep-derived biomarkers, providing objective sleep quality data.
Z3 Pulse collects comprehensive physiological signals, including ECG, for quantifying sleep insights and guiding interventions.
Neurobit Hub aggregates extensive sleep datasets to uncover novel biomarkers and accelerate clinical trials.
Together, these technologies will unlock transformative insights into the complex interactions between sleep and mental health. This pioneering study highlights the need to elucidate the intricate connections between sleep, cognition, and affect. Neurobit's innovative suite of AI-powered solutions is poised to overcome key bottlenecks facing the field today, ushering in a new era of discovery in sleep health and its far-reaching impacts on mental well-being.
Get in touch to learn more and join our mission: Research@Neurobit.com
Citation:
Sullivan, E. C., James, E., Henderson, L.-M., McCall, C., & Cairney, S. A. (2023). The influence of emotion regulation strategies and sleep quality on depression and anxiety. Cortex, 166, 286–305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2023.06.001
Revolutionizing data management & analysis in sleep health and population health research.
Clinically validated, fully featured, AASM compliant, Cloud-AI powered automatic sleep scoring system.
Sleep Research
A New Frontier in Technology-Enabled Biomarker Discovery and Sleep Disorder Diagnosis: Moving Past Traditional AHI and Highlighting Ventilatory Burden
Sleep Research
Study Emphasizes Prioritizing Sleep Regularity Over Quantity or Quality for Impact on OSA and Hypertension Management
Sleep Research
Breathing Life into Memories: The Role of Respiration in Sleep-Induced Memory Consolidation
Sleep Research
The Future of Pediatric Cardiology: The Emergence of Smart Wearables in Cardiac Monitoring and Arrhythmia Detection
Sleep Research
Impact of Sleep on Athletic Performance
Sleep Research