Sleep More: You'll Be Less Sensitive to Negative Emotions



Course: Scientifically proven ways to be happier


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We know that sleep helps our body recover from the day and repair itself and that it helps us focus and be more productive. It turns out sleep is also important for happiness.

In NutureShock, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman explain how sleep affects positivity:

Negative stimuli get processed by the amygdala; positive or neutral memories gets processed by the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation hits the hippocampus harder than the amygdala. The result is that sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories yet recall gloomy memories just fine.

In one experiment by Walker, sleep-deprived college students tried to memorize a list of words. They could remember 81% of the words with a negative connotation, like "cancer." But they could remember only 31% of the words with a positive or neutral connotation, like "sunshine" or "basket."

The BPS Research Digest explores another study that proves sleep affects our sensitivity to negative emotions. Using a facial recognition task throughout the course of a day, researchers studied how sensitive participants were to positive and negative emotions. Those who worked through the afternoon without taking a nap became more sensitive to negative emotions like fear and anger.

Using a face recognition task, here we demonstrate an amplified reactivity to anger and fear emotions across the day, without sleep. However, an intervening nap blocked and even reversed this negative emotional reactivity to anger and fear while conversely enhancing ratings of positive (happy) expressions.

Of course, how well (and how long) you sleep will probably affect how you feel when you wake up, which can make a difference to your whole day.

Another study tested how employees' moods when they started work in the morning affected their entire work day.

Researchers found that employees' moods when they clocked in tended to affect how they felt the rest of the day. Early mood was linked to their perceptions of customers and to how they reacted to customers' moods.

And most importantly to managers, employee mood had a clear impact on performance, including both how much work employees did and how well they did it.







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Adam Health care

The best way to relax a chaotictic mind to get some sleep. I took few hours off from my work in the morning and just slept until I found my mind as cheerful as a kid..

Now, I am all set to kick start the day!!

 

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Lewis C Dsafsf

I often see even a small nap relaxes the stressed and worried mind. I actually tried it before saying this.

That is why some-call it Power-Nap.. :)

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Adam Health care

Ahh,.... I spend my weekend relaxing in my bed napping.. That was great.. I just compensated my incomplete sleep of the whole week

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Lewis C Dsafsf

I feel so tired, need a sound sleep. Hitting the bed early tonight.

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Lewis C Dsafsf

Oversleeping is a symptom of depression... but a quality sleep even if it is for a shortwhile.. is best to make me happy and stress-free.. Here howstuffswork explaining the whole stuff..

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Lewis C Dsafsf

Generally, I love to snooze... I am really surprised at the health benefits of sleeping. Wohhh...not just the emotion, people live longer!!! Take a look.

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Lewis C Dsafsf

My 8 hours of sleep is my ultimate relaxation. . .

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Lewis C Dsafsf

I really wanted to identify the connection between a sound sleep and mental health... here's what threw some light on the dark corners of my mind

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Lewis C Dsafsf

This is so interesting.. just started to try this

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