The Impact of Sleep Disturbances and Sleep Debt on Emotion Regulation and Reactivity in Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients

Abstract

Sleep debt and disturbances are a growing problem worldwide, and the ramifications are unavoidable and detrimental to one’s physical health, mental health, and safety. Individuals diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) are suffering from sleep fragmentation that presents with detriments comparable to those that are sleep deprived. Characterized by its frequent arousals from sleep caused by respiratory flow limitation, OSA is known to have an impact on an individual’s emotional wellbeing, however, the mechanism behind this has remained largely unknown. This study analyzed changes in sleep architecture and emotion regulation and reactivity before and after OSA treatment. Sleep architecture was analyzed to determine change in OSA severity (defined by the apnea-hypopnea-index), duration of time spent in Stage 3 sleep, duration of time spent in Rapid-Eye-Movement stage sleep, and Total Sleep Duration. Emotion regulation and reactivity was analyzed to determine change in three prominent emotion questionnaires: The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, The Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the Profile of Mood States Questionnaire. Paired-sample t-tests, calculated in R-Studio, determined a relationship between change in AHI and Stage 3 sleep with improvement in emotion regulation and reactivity scores. The linear regression analysis showed no significant correlation in the amount of change in sleep architecture with the amount of change in emotion scores. This investigation provides evidence that there is a significant relationship between improvements in sleep architecture and enhancements in emotion regulation and reactivity.