Tag Archives: Stress

Repetitive Negative Thinking Leads to Less Sleep

Posted on March 19, 2018 by | 2 comments

Sleeping cat. Image courtesy of: Emanuele Spies on Flickr

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night unable to sleep because you are worrying about your future and you continue to think about the worst possible scenarios? No matter the reason, we all get negative thoughts once in a while and these thoughts can lead to less sleep than the required 7-9 hours for adults from ages 18 to 65. Researchers have found that people who sleep less than 8 hours a night are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety.

Rumination is the act of repetitively dwelling on thoughts that cause anxiety and distress. Your brain cycles through problems without solving them and when this happens, it can lead to negative thinking. This is especially dangerous for people who are depressed or anxious because it is difficult to switch perspectives and look for solutions to the problems. Thus, rumination intensifies and so do anxiety and depression.

This year, researchers found that a shorter sleep duration is related to the difficulty of disengaging individuals from rumination. Jacob Nota and Meredith Coles at Binghamton University, conducted a study with 52 community members from ages 18 to 65 with heightened repetitive negative thinking and varying sleep durations. Of the 52 participants, 50% of them met the criteria for major depressive disorder, 44.2% met the criteria for generalized anxiety order, and 36.5% met the criteria for social anxiety disorder; some participants fit multiple categories.

Figure 1: Schematic of how Nota and Coles conducted the attention task. Seventy-eight trials were done.

They showed the participants positive (e.g. nature scenes) or negative (e.g. guns, knives) images paired with a neutral (e.g. household items) image. When the participant fixated on one image, researchers put the other image in a frame to direct the eyes and track eye movement as shown in Figure 1.

On average, 92% of the time, participants would look at the negative image first when paired with the neutral image. When the positive image was paired with the neutral image, participants would look at the neutral image first. Participants were also, on average, 79% slower disengaging from the negative image when paired with the neutral image as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Average percent of participants that would engage with a type of image first and average percent of participants that would slowly disengage from a type of image.

After asking participants about their habitual sleep duration, 96% of those with a shorter sleep duration spent more time looking at the negative image than the neutral image and had difficulty fixating on the neutral image compared to the negative image.

Despite this interesting discovery, researchers are still evaluating how the timing and duration of sleep may contribute to the development of depression and stress. Further research can then allow psychologists to treat anxiety and depression by adjusting their patients’ sleep cycles to a healthier time.

Want to know more about negative thinking and how to stop it to get a good night’s rest? Check out the video above!

– Sara Djondovic

References

  1. Bergland, C. (2015). The Brain Mechanics of Rumination and Repetitive Thinking. Psychology Today. Retrieved March 18, 2018 from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201508/the-brain-mechanics-rumination-and-repetitive-thinking.
  2. Binghamton University. (2018). People who sleep less than 8 hours a night more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 18, 2018 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180104152947.htm.
  3. Gura, L. [Actualized.org]. (2014). Negative Thoughts – The Origin Of Negative Thinking & How To Eliminate It Forever. Retrieved March 19, 2018 from https://youtu.be/mggupbkTmWc.
  4. N. A. (n.d.). How Much Sleep Do We Really Need? National Sleep Foundation. Retrieved March 18, 2018 from https://sleepfoundation.org/excessivesleepiness/content/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need-0.
  5. Nota, J. A. & Coles, M. E. (2018). Shorter sleep duration and longer sleep onset latency are related to difficulty disengaging attention from negative emotional images in individuals with elevated transdiagnostic repetitive negative thinking. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. 58, 114-122. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005791617300629.
  6. Wehrenberg, M. (2016). Rumination: A Problem in Anxiety and Depression. Psychology Today. Retrieved March 18, 2018 from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/depression-management-techniques/201604/rumination-problem-in-anxiety-and-depression.

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City noise linked to heart disease

Posted on March 6, 2018 by | 1 comment

Figure 1 shows motorcyclists as a source of noise pollution. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Every day, on our way to school, to work, or even to run errands, we’re exposed to all kinds of city noise. Loud noise from construction sites, sirens, public transportation and heavy road traffic can be an annoyance to many of us. When it comes to constant exposure to these kinds of noises, we usually worry about the damage it can make to our ears. But now, a recent review, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology on Feb 5, 2018, explores the connection between high levels of city noise and cardiovascular disease, showing  that noise pollution is more than simply just a disturbance but also a threat to our health at the cellular level.

Video: Noise Pollution Is Much Worse For You Than You Think by Tech Insider

Although there isn’t much evidence that noise directly causes heart problems, it is the symptoms from chronic stress induced by noise, such as increased blood pressure and heart rate, which ultimately lead to unfavorable effects on the cardiovascular system. According to German researcher Thomas Münzel, after compiling previous research on noise pollution and heart health, he found that high levels of noise activate the sympathetic nervous system involved in the fight or flight response. As a result, this causes a steep increase in the stress hormone, cortisol (Figure 2), causing harm to the vascular system.

Figure 2 shows the structure of the stress hormone, cortisol. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Münzel and his team tested their claim by building animal models based on the result of exposing of mice to aircraft noise at a mean sound pressure level of 72 decibels for several days. Some of the factors they tested were systolic blood pressure and vasoconstriction, the constriction of blood vessels. According to Figure 3 and 4, as the number of days exposed to aircraft noise increased, systolic blood pressure as well as vasoconstriction in mice increased.

Figure 3 shows that as mice are exposed to aircraft noise for longer periods, their systolic blood pressure increases. Data obtained from paper.

Figure 4 shows that vasoconstriction in mice increases with the number of days they are exposed to aircraft noise. Data obtained from paper.

An increase in these symptoms associated with the vascular system can increase arterial stiffness and clog arteries. These results from mice can be extrapolated to humans to show that frequent exposure to loud noises cause symptoms that can lead to cardiovascular disease. Though not much can be done by the general public and doctors besides avoiding exposure to loud noises, Münzel believes that change is in the hands of the politicians to ensure new developments are taking place to reduce the noise level in cities.

-Annelie

References:

  1. Münzel, T.; Schmidt, F. P.; Steven, S.; Herzog, J.; Daiber, A.; Sørensen, M. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2018, 71 (6), 688–697.
  2. Macmillan, A. Noise Pollution Increases Risk for Heart Disease http://time.com/5135279/noise-pollution-increases-heart-risk/ (accessed Mar 6, 2018).
  3. Bever, L. Why car horns, planes and sirens might be bad for your heart https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/02/06/why-car-horns-and-other-common-loud-noises-may-be-bad-for-your-heart/?utm_term=.407c72ef8392 (accessed Mar 6, 2018).

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Practice Testing: Prevent Stress from Affecting Your Memory

Posted on February 26, 2018 by | 2 comments

Figure 1. Studying student. Image courtesy of: Skokie Public Library on Flickr

Round two of midterm exams is approaching fast and before you know it, it is final exam season. This can cause a lot of stress for students, so how can you increase your marks before the end of the school year? Researchers have found that practice testing as a learning strategy can protect your memory from the negative effects of stress.

No matter how many exams a student has written in their life, they can still get stressed hours before writing an exam. When you are stressed, it is difficult to retrieve information from your memory because your body is preparing for a flight or fight response. The best way to prevent stress from affecting your memory is to study effectively.

Most students tend to study by re-reading the textbook and re-writing notes; this is known as study practice. Another method of studying involves taking practice tests to study for an exam; this is known as retrieval practice.

In 2016, researchers at Tuft University conducted an experiment with 120 students comparing the learning strategies of retrieval practice versus study practice. Participants were asked to learn 30 nouns presented as words and 30 nouns presented as images. This was done using a computer program which displayed an item for a few seconds. Then participants typed a sentence including the item displayed to simulate note taking.

Half of the participants were put into the study practice group and the other half in the retrieval study group. The participants learning by study practice had the items re-displayed multiple times on the computer. The participants learning by retrieval practice took timed practice tests where they had to recall as many items as possible.

For both learning strategies there were non-stressed and stressed participants. Half of the participants from each learning strategy were put under stress conditions and the other half in non-stress conditions. Stress conditions were created by having participants give a speech or solve difficult math problems in front of a group 24 hours after studying.

The memory test for stressed participants was taken during the stressful task to accurately represent the feelings of most students before a test. The non-stressed group took the memory test during a non-stressful task. The participants were asked to accurately recall as many items possible.

Figure 2. Average number of words and images accurately recalled immediately after stress.

As seen in Fig. 2, retrieval practice is the best way of studying because participants in stressful situations recalled the same number of items as participants in non-stressful situations. With this learning strategy, stress had little to no effect on the number of items recalled. The stressed retrieval practice group also recalled more items than the non-stressed study practice group.

Why is retrieval practice effective? The learning strategy forces you to recall information repeatedly and this helps strengthen long-term memory retention. So, for your upcoming exam, try studying through retrieval practice to handle the stress and ace your exam!

Want to know more about retrieval practice? Check out the video above!

– Sara Djondovic

References

  1. Agarwal, P. K. [Retrieval Practice]. (2017). Retrieval Practice Overview. Retrieved February 25, 2018 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO8abw3DHxs&feature=youtu.be.
  2. Agarwal, P. K. Retrieve!. Retrieval Practice. Retrieved February 25, 2018 from https://www.retrievalpractice.org.
  3. McLeod, S. A. (2010). Long-term memory. Retrieved February 25, 2018 from www.simplypsychology.org/long-term-memory.html.
  4. N.A. (n.d.). The fight or flight response: Our body’s response to stress. Young Diggers. Retrieved February 25, 2018 from http://www.youngdiggers.com.au/fight-or-flight.
  5. Segal, J., Smith, M., Segal, R., Robinson, L. (2018). Stress Symptoms, Signs, and Causes. HELPGUIDE.ORG. Retrieved February 25, 2018 from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-symptoms-signs-and-causes.htm.
  6. Smith, A. M., Floerke, V. A., Thomas, A. K. (2016). Retrieval practice protects memory against acute stress. Science, 354(6315), 1046-1048. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6315/1046.
  7. Tufts University. (2016). Practice testing protects memory against stress. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 24, 2018 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161124160426.htm.

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