Chronically anxious? Deep sleep may take the edge off

长期焦虑？深度睡眠可以帮助缓解

By Yasmin Anwar, UC Berkeley

Extreme angst is on the rise nationally and globally, especially among teens and millennials. Among other factors, preliminary findings from UC Berkeley sleep researchers point to a chronic lack of deep restorative sleep.

在全国和全球范围内，人们的焦虑正在上升，尤其是青少年和千禧一代。加州大学伯克利分校(UC Berkeley)睡眠研究人员初步发现其原因之一：长期缺乏深度恢复性睡眠。

Investigating the neural link between sleep and anxiety, UC Berkeley neuroscientists Matthew Walker and Eti Ben Simon are finding that non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep plays a key role in calming the overactive brain, especially in the brain regions that process and regulate emotions.

加州大学伯克利分校的神经学家马修·沃克(Matthew Walker)和埃蒂·本·西蒙(Eti Ben Simon)在研究睡眠与焦虑之间的神经联系时发现，非快速眼动(NREM)睡眠对镇静过度活动的大脑起着关键作用，尤其是在处理和调节情绪的脑区。

“The more time you spend in deep non-REM sleep, the less anxious you are in the morning,” said Ben Simon in reporting her preliminary findings at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting this week in San Diego.

“你在深度非快速眼动睡眠中度过的时间越长，你早上的焦虑就越少，”本·西蒙在本周圣地亚哥神经科学年会上就她的初步发现做了报告。

Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), among other measures, Ben Simon and Walker tracked the anxiety levels and brain activity of 18 healthy young adults, first during and after each participant enjoyed a regular night of sleep, and next after the same study participants stayed awake for 24 hours.

利用功能性磁共振成像(FMRI)等测量手段，本·西蒙和沃克跟踪了18名健康青年的焦虑水平和大脑活动情况，一次是在每个志愿者规律睡眠期间和规律睡眠之后，另一次是在志愿者保持24小时清醒之后。

Each morning, study participants viewed emotionally evocative video clips while inside a brain scanner so that researchers could observe changes in their emotional brain activity after a night of no sleep.

每天早晨，志愿者们观看大脑扫描仪内有关情绪变化的视频片段，这样研究人员就可以观察一夜不眠后他们的大脑活动情况。

In the evenings, researchers found nearly identical anxiety levels across all the participants. However, after a night of no sleep, study participants reported a 30 percent increase in anxiety compared to the way they felt after a good night’s sleep.

晚上，研究人员几乎在所有参与者中都发现了相同的焦虑水平。然而，在一夜不眠之后，志愿者们报告说，与睡好觉后的感觉相比，他们的焦虑增加了30%。

Moreover, brain scans taken as sleep-deprived participants watched video clips in the morning showed increased activity in such emotion centers as the amygdala “fight-or-flight” reflex, while the medial frontal cortex, which helps temper emotional responses, was virtually shut down.

此外，当睡眠不足的志愿者早上观看视频片段时，大脑扫描显示杏仁核“战斗或逃跑”反射等情绪中心的活动增加，而帮助调节情绪反应的内侧额叶皮层则实际上被关闭了。

As for study participants who benefitted from a full night of sleep, those who enjoyed longer periods of non-REM deep sleep reported the lowest levels of anxiety the next morning and showed the least emotional reactivity.

对于那些从一整晚睡眠中受益的志愿者来说，享受更长时间的非眼动深度睡眠，第二天早上的焦虑水平最低，表现出的情绪反应最少。

“A good night of deep non-REM sleep can benefit us in terms of anxiety and emotional regulation,” said Ben Simon, a postdoctoral fellow in Walker’s Center for Human Sleep Science at UC Berkeley.

加州大学伯克利分校沃克人类睡眠科学中心（Walker’s Center for Human Sleep Science）的博士后本·西蒙说：“一晚高质量的非快速眼动睡眠对缓解焦虑和调节情绪都有好处。”

One U.S. adult in five is estimated to have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, a mental health category that includes panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, and up to 80 percent of anxiety patients complain about poor or disturbed sleep.

据估计，五分之一的美国成年人被诊断患有焦虑症。焦虑症是一种心理健康疾病，包括恐慌症、创伤后应激障碍、强迫症和广泛性焦虑症。多达80%的焦虑症患者抱怨睡眠不足或睡眠质量差。

Add to that an epidemic in which one U.S. adult in three fails to get the recommended nightly eight hours of sleep, and a connection between sleep and anxiety emerges, Walker points out.

沃克指出，再加上一种普遍现象，即三分之一的美国成年人无法满足建议的每晚8小时睡眠时间，睡眠和焦虑之间的联系就会显现出来。

On a positive note, Walker says, “Deep sleep provides a nocturnal soothing balm, taking the sharp edges off our lives and lowering our anxiety. It’s a form of nocturnal therapy that many of us shortchange in this modern era of insufficient sleep.”

沃克说，积极的方面是，“深度睡眠提供了一种夜间舒缓霜，消除了我们生活中尖锐的边缘，降低了我们的焦虑。”在现在这个睡眠不足的时代，这是一种夜间疗法。”