Abstract
Sleep deprivation adversely affects the psychological and physiological functions, but little information about the effects of poor sleeping on the emotional responses of individuals are available. In the present study, the effect of one night insufficient sleep on the emotional responses to visual stimuli was appraised using electrocardiogram (ECG) measures. We also tested the hypothesis that men and women differ in affective response, considering the sleep quantity. ECG signals of university students (20 men and 20 women) were recorded while viewing affective pictures. Images were selected from the International Affective Picture System and categorized as happy, fear, sadness, and relax. The data were characterized using 14 time- and frequency-based features. The Wilcoxon statistical test was applied to examine significant differences between two groups of insufficient and normal sleep. A significant effect of ECG parameters was observed in deficient sleep on the emotional responses. Mode, RMS, and mean power show the largest effect size in all affective states. Among the affective states, the most significant differences between the two groups were perceived while watching sad and relaxed pictures. In addition, analysis of affective ECG measures in men and women distinctly revealed that lack of sleeping is more pronounced in men. Sleep is associated with the emotional responses. Our results confirmed the effect of gender on affective physiological reactions.
Published Version
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