title: Psychological Effect of an Analogue Traumatic Event Reduced by Sleep Deprivation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the effect of sleep deprivation compared to sleep, immediately after experimental trauma stimuli on the development of intrusive memories to that trauma stimuli.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were exposed to a film with traumatic content (trauma film). The immediate response to the trauma film was assessed, followed by either total sleep deprivation (sleep deprived group, N = 20) or sleep as usual (sleep group, N = 22). Twelve hours after the film viewing the initial psychological effect of the trauma film was measured and for the subsequent 6 days intrusive emotional memories related to the trauma film were recorded in daily life.
  
  
  METHODS
  Academic sleep laboratory and participants' home environment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Healthy paid volunteers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  On the first day after the trauma film, the psychological effect as assessed by the Impact of Event Scale - Revised was lower in the sleep deprived group compared to the sleep group. In addition, the sleep deprived group reported fewer intrusive emotional memories (mean 2.28, standard deviation [SD] 2.91) compared to the sleep group (mean 3.76, SD 3.35). Because habitual sleep/circadian patterns, psychological health, and immediate effect of the trauma film were similar at baseline for participants of both groups, the results cannot be accounted for by pre-existing inequalities between groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that sleep deprivation on one night, rather than sleeping, reduces emotional effect and intrusive memories following exposure to experimental trauma.
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Porcheret
authors.affiliation: MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK.|Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Emily A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Guy M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Goodwin
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Russell G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wulff
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009040:Motion Pictures; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D000067073:Psychological Trauma / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: analogue trauma; emotional memory; intrusive memory; posttraumatic stress disorder; sleep deprivation