Sleep deprivation negatively impacts reappraisal, reducing its effectiveness in regulating valence, and shows a dissociation between valence and arousal regulation after sleep loss.
Key Findings
Results
Sleep-deprived participants showed significantly more negative valence after attempting to reappraise anger-inducing scripts compared to both baseline and controls.
Sample: 76 undergraduate students randomized to sleep deprivation or 8 hours of sleep opportunity
Pairwise contrast: more negative valence post-manipulation vs. baseline: t(148) = 4.19, p < 0.001
Pairwise contrast: more negative valence post-manipulation vs. controls: t(148) = 4.27, p < 0.001
Valence was measured using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM)
Results
Sleep-deprived participants showed significantly lower arousal following reappraisal attempts compared to baseline and controls, contrary to predictions.
Pairwise contrast: lower arousal post-manipulation vs. baseline: t(148) = 3.80, p = 0.001
Pairwise contrast: lower arousal post-manipulation vs. controls: t(148) = 3.43, p = 0.004
The direction of the arousal effect was opposite to predictions, as higher arousal was expected to indicate greater difficulty reappraising
Arousal was also measured using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM)
Results
Sleep deprivation did not significantly impact self-reported use of reappraisal or reappraisal fluency.
Reappraisal use was assessed via self-report measures completed before and after the manipulation
Reappraisal fluency was assessed by coding participant descriptions of their reappraisals
Neither outcome showed a statistically significant effect of the sleep deprivation manipulation
This suggests the impairment was specific to the effectiveness of reappraisal rather than its frequency or verbal generation
Discussion
The study found a dissociation between valence and arousal regulation following sleep deprivation during reappraisal.
Sleep-deprived participants experienced worsened valence (more negative) but reduced rather than elevated arousal
Authors describe this as 'a dissociation between valence and arousal regulation after sleep loss'
The arousal finding was described as 'contrary to predictions'
This dissociation suggests that sleep loss differentially affects distinct components of emotional experience during cognitive regulation
Methods
The study used a repeated-measures within-subjects and between-subjects design with at-home sleep deprivation or 8 hours of sleep opportunity.
76 undergraduate students participated
Design was randomized with participants assigned to sleep deprivation or control (8-hour sleep opportunity) condition
The Script-Based Reappraisal Test (SBRT; Zeier et al., 2020) was used to assess reappraisal ability using anger-inducing scripts
Measures were collected before and after the manipulation (repeated-measures design)
Sleep deprivation was conducted at-home rather than in a laboratory setting
Conclusions
The authors conclude that sleep deprivation disrupts cognitive emotion regulation, highlighting the importance of incorporating sleep into mental health prevention and treatment efforts.
Cognitive reappraisal is described as 'a key mechanism underlying mental health disorders'
Findings are framed as relevant to both prevention and treatment of mental health conditions
The study provides experimental evidence linking acute sleep loss to impaired emotion regulation capacity
Authors specifically identify the incorporation of sleep into prevention and treatment efforts as a practical implication
What This Means
This research suggests that even a single night of sleep deprivation makes it harder for people to use a key emotional coping strategy called 'cognitive reappraisal' — the ability to deliberately think about a frustrating or upsetting situation in a way that reduces its emotional impact. In this study, 76 college students were randomly assigned to either stay awake all night or get a full night of sleep, and their ability to reframe anger-inducing scenarios was tested before and after. Sleep-deprived participants rated the scenarios as more emotionally negative after trying to reappraise them, compared to both their own pre-deprivation baseline and to participants who slept normally.
Interestingly, the study also found an unexpected result regarding arousal (a measure of emotional intensity or activation): sleep-deprived participants showed lower arousal after reappraisal attempts, rather than the higher arousal the researchers had predicted would indicate difficulty coping. This suggests that sleep loss may affect different aspects of emotional experience — such as how positive or negative something feels versus how activated or energized it makes you feel — in different and potentially dissociated ways. Notably, sleep deprivation did not change how often participants reported using reappraisal or how well they could verbally describe reappraisals, meaning the deficit was specifically in how well reappraisal actually worked, not in their awareness or description of the strategy.
This research matters because cognitive reappraisal is considered an important emotional regulation tool that is often targeted in psychological therapies for conditions like anxiety and depression. If sleep deprivation undermines this ability, it suggests that poor sleep may make people more vulnerable to emotional difficulties and may reduce the effectiveness of coping strategies people rely on. The findings point to the potential value of addressing sleep as part of mental health prevention and treatment efforts.
Campbell R, Thompson L, Williams P, Assar A, Gournay-Berman L, Nguyen A, et al.. (2026). Reappraising negative situations after a night of sleep deprivation.. Behaviour research and therapy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2026.104958