Impact of REM sleep on distortions of self-concept, mood and memory in depressed/anxious participants.
BACKGROUND
We tested the hypothesis that REM sleep contributes to core features of cognitive dysfunction of anxious depression including negative self-appraisals, biased memory processing and unpleasant dream content.


METHODS
After a habituation night in a sleep lab, a convenience sample of 35 healthy college students and 20 depressed/anxious students were awakened 10 min into a REM sleep episode and then 10 min into a NREM sleep episode. Awakenings were counterbalanced to control circadian effects. After each awakening participants reported a dream and then completed memory recall, mood and self-appraisal tasks.


RESULTS
Self-appraisals of depressed/anxious participants were significantly less positive and significantly more negative after awakenings from REM sleep vs NREM sleep. Appraisal of the REM sleep dream self was negative for depressed/anxious subjects only. Recall of negative memories was significantly more frequent after REM vs NREM sleep awakenings for both depress/anxious and healthy participants. REM sleep dreams were associated with greater frequencies of negative emotion, greater aggression and victimization rates than dreams in NREM sleep for depressed/anxious participants.


CONCLUSIONS
Depressed/anxious participants were classified as such on the basis of mood scales rather than clinical interview. All participants were drawn from a volunteer college student population and thus our results may not be applicable to some elderly clinical populations.


CONCLUSIONS
REM appears to facilitate cognitive distortions of anxious depression.
McNamara
Patrick
P
Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine and VA New England Healthcare System, 72 East Concord St, B528, Boston, MA 02118, United States. mcnamar@bu.edu
Auerbach
Sanford
S
Johnson
Patricia
P
Harris
Erica
E
Doros
Gheorghe
G
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001007:Anxiety / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D003863:Depression / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D004325:Dreams / Q000523:psychology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012649:Self Concept; D012895:Sleep, REM; D013997:Time Factors; D014851:Wakefulness; D055815:Young Adult