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Mood impairment is stronger in young than in older adults after sleep deprivation
Author(s) -
Schwarz Johanna,
Axelsson John,
Gerhardsson Andreas,
Tamm Sandra,
Fischer Håkan,
Kecklund Göran,
Åkerstedt Torbjörn
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of sleep research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.297
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1365-2869
pISSN - 0962-1105
DOI - 10.1111/jsr.12801
Subject(s) - sleep deprivation , mood , young adult , affect (linguistics) , sleep debt , psychology , irritability , sleep (system call) , anger , depression (economics) , clinical psychology , cognition , psychiatry , developmental psychology , economics , macroeconomics , operating system , communication , computer science
Sleep deprivation commonly impairs affective regulation and causes worse mood. However, the majority of previous research concerns young adults. Because susceptibility to sleep deprivation and emotion regulation change distinctively across adult age, we tested here the hypothesis that the effect of sleep deprivation on mood is stronger in young than in older adults. In an experimental design, young (18–30 years) and older adults (60–72 years) participated in either a sleep control (young, n = 63; older, n = 47) or a total sleep deprivation condition (young, n = 61; older, n = 47). Sleepiness, mood and common symptoms of sleep deprivation were measured using established questionnaires and ratings. Sleep‐deprived participants felt more sleepy, stressed and cold, and reported lower vigour and positive affect, regardless of age. All the other outcome measures (negative affect, depression, confusion, tension, anger, fatigue, total mood disturbance, hunger, cognitive attenuation, irritability) showed a weaker response to sleep deprivation in the older group, as indicated by age*sleep deprivation interactions ( p s < 0.05). The results show that older adults are emotionally less affected by sleep deprivation than young adults. This tolerance was mainly related to an attenuated increase in negative mood. This could possibly be related to the well‐known positivity effect , which suggests that older adults prioritize regulating their emotions to optimize well‐being. The results also highlight that caution is warranted when generalizing results from sleep deprivation studies across the adult lifespan.