Deep Sleep ‘Rewires’ The Brain To Eliminate Anxiety

December 31, 2019

Everyone experiences anxiety and stress at various times in their life. We’ve all felt especially fried after a long day filled with trials and tribulations. Society tells us there are various ways to reduce stress and unwind.  A new study finds the best way to promote a natural, neural “reset” and relieve anxiety is to fall into a deep sleep.

According to UC Berkeley research, deep sleep promotes highly-synchronized neural movements between synapses. It lowers heart rate and blood pressure.  Called non-rapid eye movement (NREM).  Slow-wave sleep, stabilizes our emotions.  In short, deep sleep soothes the brain, allowing it to reset inter-neural connections.

“We have identified a new function of deep sleep... decreases anxiety overnight by reorganizing connections in the brain.” Senior author Matthew Walker, UC Berkeley neuroscience and psychology professor said. “Deep sleep seems to be a natural anxiolytic (anxiety inhibitor), so long as we get it every night.”

This research is among the best evidence connecting sleep to anxiety relief on a neural level.  Sleep as a natural, non-pharmaceutical alternative for anxiety disorder treatment.

“Our study suggests that insufficient sleep amplifies levels of anxiety and, that deep sleep helps reduce such stress.”  Study lead author Eti Ben Simon said. He is a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Human Sleep Science at UC Berkeley.

Using MRI technology, as well as other techniques. The researchers observed the brain activity of 18 young adults as they viewed “emotionally stirring” videos on two different occasions.  One time after a full, restful night’s sleep, and then again after staying up all night. Anxiety levels were also measured after each video session via a survey.

Brain scans after a sleepless night revealed the medial prefrontal cortex had shut down. This structure usually helps regulate anxiety. The same brain scans showed deeper emotional centers were overactive after not sleeping.

“Without sleep, it’s almost as if the brain is too heavy on the emotional accelerator pedal, without enough brake,” professor Walker says.

After getting a full night’s sleep, participants’ anxiety levels plummeted. Those with longer periods if slow-wave NREM sleep showed greater drops in anxiety.

A follow upbexperiment up with 30 participants produced the same results. A third experiment with 280 individuals, of a variety of ages, took part in an online study. It asked about how their sleep and anxiety levels fluctuated over the course of four days. The amount and quality of sleep each person attained each night influenced how anxious they felt the next day. Even slight fluctuations in sleep patterns appeared to impact anxiety levels.

“People with anxiety disorders often report having disturbed sleep. But rarely is sleep improvement considered as a clinical recommendation for lowering anxiety,” Simon says. “Our study establishes a causal connection between sleep and anxiety.  It identifies the kind of deep NREM sleep we need to calm the overanxious brain.”

“The decimation of sleep throughout most industrialized nations and the marked escalation in anxiety disorders in these same countries is perhaps not coincidental, but causally related,” professor Walker concludes. “The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night of sleep.”

The scientific journal Nature Human Behaviour published the study.