Sleep Enhancement Research Study
Primary Investigator: Michelle Stepan, PhD; stepanme@upmc.edu
Slow-wave sleep is the deepest stage of sleep and is important for restoring daytime functioning and cognitive processes. Cognitive control helps to regulate emotions, a process which is often disrupted in anxiety and mood disorders. Thus, slow-wave sleep may play an important role in anxiety and mood disorders. Playing brief, quiet tones during sleep (i.e., acoustic stimulation) has been shown to enhance slow-wave sleep and cognitive processes in healthy individuals, without disturbing sleep. However, we don’t know how playing tones will affect sleep, cognition, and emotional processes in individuals experiencing symptoms of anxiety and/or depression. SERS will examine the effect of acoustic stimulation during sleep on slow-wave sleep, cognition, and emotions in young adults with a range of anxiety and depression symptoms.
Project Contacts: Sarah Teel (teelsa@upmc.edu) and Alexis Whitehead (whiteheada@upmc.edu)