A recently published trial looked at the anxiogenic impact of sleep loss. What they found was that poor quality sleep or insufficient sleep causes next-day anxiety. This anxiogenic impact of sleep loss is linked to impaired medial prefrontal cortex limbic region activity.

In contrast, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) slow-wave oscillations experienced during deep, restful sleep, offer an ameliorating, anxiolytic benefit on these brain networks. The researchers concluded from this that “…even modest night-to-night reductions in sleep across the population cause day-to-day increases in anxiety.”

So ensure you look at sleep as a priority in all your anxious patients!

SHARING THIS INFORMATION WITH YOUR PATIENTS

To share this information with your patients download the pdf version and use it to create your own branded social media post. https://bwellness.ontraport.com/tl/349

Reference: Eti Ben Simon, Aubrey Rossi, Allison G. Harvey, Matthew P. Walker. Overanxious and underslept. Nature Human Behaviour, 2019; DOI: 10.1038/s41562-019-0754-8

Weblink: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0754-8