Changes in emotional responses to aversive pictures across periods rich in slow-wave sleep versus rapid eye movement sleep

Objective: Since Freud's "Interpretation of Dreams," sleep has been related to emotional functions, where dreams were assumed to play a cathartic role. In psychophysiological research, this role was attributed mainly to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The present study compared processing pictures with negative emotional impact over intervals covering either early sleep dominated by slow-wave sleep (SWS) or late REM sleep-dominated sleep. Method: Emotional reactions were assessed by a nonverbal rating procedure along the two emotional dimensions valence (positive vs. negative) and arousal (low vs. high). Two groups of healthy men were tested across 3-hour periods of early and late nocturnal sleep (sleep group) or corresponding intervals filled with wakefulness (wake group). After the intervals, subjects rated new pictures together with old pictures already presented before the interval. Sleep was recorded polysomnographically. Results: As expected, the amount of REM sleep was about three times greater during late than early nocturnal sleep, whereas a reversed distribution was observed for SWS (p <.001). Valence ratings indicated a shift toward enhanced negative ratings after late sleep (p <.05), contrasting with a trend toward more positive ratings after early sleep (p <.10). Arousal habituated slightly to repeated presentation of the same stimuli, but sleep generally enhanced subsequent arousal ratings (p <.05). Effects of sleep did not depend on whether pictures had low or high emotional impact. Conclusions: Indicating a priming-like enhancement of emotional reactivity after periods rich in REM sleep, results do not confirm a cathartic function of REM sleep or sleep in general.