Guest Series | Dr. Matt Walker: Improve Sleep to Boost Mood & Emotional Regulation

This is episode 5 of our 6-part special series on sleep with Dr. Matthew Walker, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and the host of The Matt Walker Podcast. In this episode, we explain the connection between sleep and mood, emotional regulation and mental well-being.

We explain the role of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in processing emotions and emotional memories and why sleep deprivation causes agitation, impulsivity and emotional reactivity.

We also discuss why sleep disruption is a hallmark feature of PTSD, anxiety, depression, suicidality, and other psychiatric conditions.

We explain protocols for improving REM sleep and other sleep phases in order to harness the therapeutic power of quality sleep to feel calmer and emotionally restored.

This episode describes various actionable tools to improve sleep for those struggling with mental health or mood and those wanting to bolster their overall state and well-being.

The next episode in this special series explores dreams, including lucid dreaming, nightmares and dream interpretation.

Articles

• REM Sleep Depotentiates Amygdala Activity to Previous Emotional Experiences (Current Biology)
• The human emotional brain without sleep — a prefrontal amygdala disconnect (Current Biology)
• Sleep and Emotional Memory Processing (Sleep Medicine Clinics)
• Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing (Psychological Bulletin)
• Regularly Occurring Periods of Eye Motility, and Concomitant Phenomena, During Sleep (Science)
• The effect of partial REM sleep deprivation and delayed recovery (Journal of Psychiatric Research)
• Sleep Loss Influences the Interconnected Brain-Body Regulation of Cardiovascular Function in Humans (Psychosomatic Medicine)
• Sleep Deprivation Amplifies Reactivity of Brain Reward Networks, Biasing the Appraisal of Positive Emotional Experiences (The Journal of Neuroscience)
• Cocaine Users Differ from Normals on Cognitive Tasks Which Show Poorer Performance During Drug Abstinence (The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse)
• The Role of Sleep in Emotional Brain Function (Annual Review of Clinical Psychology)
• Trial of Prazosin for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Military Veterans (The New England Journal of Medicine)
• Overanxious and underslept (Nature Human Behaviour)
• Tired and Apprehensive: Anxiety Amplifies the Impact of Sleep Loss on Aversive Brain Anticipation (The Journal of Neuroscience)
• Day and night light exposure are associated with psychiatric disorders: an objective light study in >85,000 people (Nature Mental Health)

Other Resources

• Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ)

Huberman Lab Episodes Mentioned

• Guest Series | Dr. Matthew Walker: The Biology of Sleep & Your Unique Sleep Needs (Episode 1)
• Guest Series | Dr. Matthew Walker: Protocols to Improve Your Sleep (Episode 2)
• Guest Series | Dr. Matthew Walker: How to Structure Your Sleep, Use Naps & Time Caffeine (Episode 3)
• Guest Series | Dr. Matthew Walker: Using Sleep to Improve Learning, Creativity & Memory (Episode 4)
• Dr. Matthew MacDougall: Neuralink & Technologies to Enhance Human Brains
• Guest Series | Dr. Paul Conti: How to Understand & Assess Your Mental Health
• Dr. Karl Deisseroth: Understanding & Healing the Mind
• Chronotypes (timestamp)
• QQRT (Quality, Quantity, Regularity, and Timing) Framework (timestamp)

People Mentioned

• ‍Eric Knudsen: neurobiology professor emeritus, Stanford‍
• William Dement: sleep medicine pioneer, Stanford‍
• E. Joseph Cossman: inventor, entrepreneur‍
• Murray Raskind: professor of psychiatry, University of Washington‍
• Ryan Soave: trauma therapist, yoga teacher‍
• Sam Golden: professor of biology, University of Washington‍
• Kate Kaplan: therapist, sleep, anxiety & depression