Sleepless in America

Sleepless in America by National Geographic Channel exposes the crucial need for sleep and the shocking life-threatening consequences of its absence.

Sleep and emotion regulation

The interplay between sleep and emotion regulation: conceptual framework empirical evidence and future directions.
Gruber R, Cassoff J.
Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2014 Nov;16(11):500. 

Emotions are biologically-based responses that help an organism meet challenges and opportunities, and involve changes in subjective experience, behavior, and physiology. Emotions arise when something important to us is at stake. Although many factors have been associated with healthy emotional regulation, the role of sleep in this process has been largely ignored. Recent studies, however, have begun to delineate how sleep critically affects emotional functioning. Nighttime sleep affects daytime mood, emotional reactivity and the capacity to regulate positive and negative emotions; conversely, daytime experiences affect sleep. Hence, there is a complex interplay between sleep and emotional regulation. The objective of this article is to examine this interplay in adults. This objective is addressed by utilizing a framework that identifies key aspects of the relationship between sleep and emotion. We propose that the connectivity between the emotional centers of the brain - the prefontal cortex and the amygdala - is in part dependent on the homeostatic sleep system such that connectivity between these brain networks is higher when rested and lower when sleep deprived. High connectivity drives more efficient executive functioning, while a disconnect leads to poor executive functioning capacity including emotional reactivity and impulsivity. The cognitive effects of the homeostatic system are couple with the mood regulation effects of the circadian system together dictating the degree to which one experiences emotional regulation or dysregulation. Further, the affective brain systems of individuals with clinical symptomology and/or pathology are suggested to be more vulnerable to homeostatic pressure and circadian lows or misalignment resulting in increased affective clinical symptomology. We review empirical evidence that supports this framework and explore the implications of this framework. Finally, we describe future directions for this type of work.

Sleep and dreaming improves memory organization, emotion regulation and creativity

Sleep and dreaming are for important matters.
Perogamvros L, Dang-Vu TT, Desseilles M, Schwartz S.
Frontiers in Psychology, 25 July 2013 

Recent studies in sleep and dreaming have described an activation of emotional and reward systems, as well as the processing of internal information during these states. Specifically, increased activity in the amygdala and across mesolimbic dopaminergic regions during REM sleep is likely to promote the consolidation of memory traces with high emotional/motivational value. Moreover, coordinated hippocampal-striatal replay during NREM sleep may contribute to the selective strengthening of memories for important events. In this review, we suggest that, via the activation of emotional/motivational circuits, sleep and dreaming may offer a neurobehavioral substrate for the offline reprocessing of emotions, associative learning, and exploratory behaviors, resulting in improved memory organization, waking emotion regulation, social skills, and creativity. Dysregulation of such motivational/emotional processes due to sleep disturbances (e.g., insomnia, sleep deprivation) would predispose to reward-related disorders, such as mood disorders, increased risk-taking and compulsive behaviors, and may have major health implications, especially in vulnerable populations.

The riddle of experience vs. memory

Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman talks about happiness from a perspective of experience and remembering.

Transform Your Mind, Change Your Brain

In this talk, Richard J. Davidson explores recent scientific research on the neuroscience of positive human qualities and how they can be cultivated through contemplative practice. Distinctions among different forms of contemplative practices are introduced and shown to have different neural and behavioral consequences, as well as important consequences for physical health in both long-term and novice practitioners. New research also shows that meditation-based interventions delivered online can produce behavioral and neural changes. Collectively, this body of research indicates that we can cultivate adaptive neural changes and strengthen positive human qualities through systematic mental practice.

Boost resistance to interference

The sleeping brain's influence on verbal memory: boosting resistance to interference.
Jeffrey M. Ellenbogen, Justin C. Hulbert, Ying Jiang, Robert Stickgold
PLoS ONE 2009;4(1):e4117.

Memories evolve. After learning something new, the brain initiates a complex set of post-learning processing that facilitates recall (i.e., consolidation). Evidence points to sleep as one of the determinants of that change. But whenever a behavioral study of episodic memory shows a benefit of sleep, critics assert that sleep only leads to a temporary shelter from the damaging effects of interference that would otherwise accrue during wakefulness. To evaluate the potentially active role of sleep for verbal memory, we compared memory recall after sleep, with and without interference before testing. We demonstrated that recall performance for verbal memory was greater after sleep than after wakefulness. And when using interference testing, that difference was even more pronounced. By introducing interference after sleep, this study confirms an experimental paradigm that demonstrates the active role of sleep in consolidating memory, and unmasks the large magnitude of that benefit.

The Blank Slate

Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate argues that all humans are born with some innate traits. Here, Pinker talks about his thesis, and why some people found it incredibly upsetting.