Sleep quality and emotion recognition in individuals with and without internalizing psychopathologies

Separate lines of research indicate sleep quality may impact recognition of facial expressions in anxious or depressed individuals. This study examined facial emotion recognition ability in the context of self-perceived sleep quality and anxiety and depression symptom levels in individuals with and without internalizing psychopathologies.

Seventy anxious and/or depressed patients and 24 demographically matched healthy controls completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), standard measures of anxiety and depression, and an Emotion Recognition Task comprising negative and positive facial expressions.

Analyses of variance results revealed patients reported worse sleep quality than controls. Linear mixed-effects models indicated that all participants demonstrated better emotion recognition abilities in identifying positive versus negative emotions. For reaction time, but not accuracy, regression results revealed significant individual differences, with worse sleep quality predicting slower reaction times for positive faces, specifically for happiness.

The use of a subjective measure of sleep quality and a specific behavioral paradigm for emotion recognition may impact the generalizability of the findings.

Associations between task performance and emotional valence of facial expression implies that poor sleep quality, beyond internalizing symptom severity, may disrupt emotion processing.