REM-unen fragmentaatio, ahdistus ja yönaikainen emotionaalinen sopeutuminen

Consolidated Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep has been associated with successful overnight emotional adaptation, which was operationalized as the overnight change in emotion intensity in the present study. In contrast, REM sleep fragmentation has been proposed to disrupt these overnight adaptation processes potentially contributing to the development of anxiety. The aim of this study was to examine whether REM sleep fragmentation is associated with overnight changes in emotion intensity and self-reported anxiety in a clinical cohort. The association between self-reported anxiety and overnight changes in emotion intensity was examined in 76 participants. In a subsample of 21 participants, REM sleep fragmentation was measured using overnight high-density electroencephalography (HD-EEG), and its associations with self-reported anxiety and overnight changes in emotion intensity were examined. Low anxiety was associated with smaller overnight changes in emotion intensity. REM sleep fragmentation was neither associated with anxiety nor with emotion intensity change. The results indicate that overnight changes in emotion intensity may also be influenced by mechanisms other than REM sleep fragmentation. The findings also highlight the need to further examine whether the current models of overnight emotional adaptation are sufficient to explain the overnight changes in the intensity of discrete emotions.