Reappraising negative situations after a night of sleep deprivation

The goal of the present study was to determine the effect of acute sleep deprivation on the ability to reappraise negative situations using a repeated-measures design. Seventy-six undergraduate students completed self-report measures of reappraisal use and the Script-Based Reappraisal Test (SBRT; Zeier et al., 2020) before and after randomization to a night of at-home sleep deprivation or 8 h of sleep opportunity. The Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) indexed changes in valence and arousal, with more negative valence and higher arousal indicating greater difficulty reappraising the anger-inducing scripts. Participant descriptions of reappraisals were coded to assess reappraisal fluency. Sleep-deprived participants struggled to reappraise as indicated by significantly more negative valence (F(1, 74) = 11.23, p = 0.001, η²G = 0.05) and lower arousal (F(1, 74) = 18.93, p < 0.001, η²G = 0.05) compared to baseline and controls. Pairwise contrasts indicated more negative valence post-manipulation for sleep-deprived participants compared to both baseline (t(148) = 4.19, p < 0.001) and controls (t(148) = 4.27, p < 0.001) and lower arousal post-manipulation compared to baseline (t(148) = 3.80, p = 0.001) and controls (t(148) = 3.43, p = 0.004). Sleep deprivation did not significantly impact self-reported use of reappraisal or fluency. Sleep deprivation negatively impacts reappraisal, reducing its effectiveness in regulating valence. However, contrary to predictions for arousal, sleep-deprived participants showed reduced rather than elevated arousal following reappraisal, suggesting a dissociation between valence and arousal regulation after sleep loss. Findings indicate that sleep deprivation disrupts cognitive emotion regulation, a key mechanism underlying mental health disorders, highlighting the importance of incorporating sleep into prevention and treatment efforts.