Losing Control: How Lack of Sleep Allows Unpleasant Thoughts to Intrude

Unwanted memories can intrude on our thoughts from time to time, but new research suggests that a lack of sleep can greatly impair our ability to suppress these unpleasant and unwanted thoughts. Researcher Scott Cairney from the University of York in the UK helps us understand the role of sleep disturbance in guarding against these intrusive thoughts.

Reference: Harrington, M.O., Ashton, J.E., Sankarasubramanian, S., Anderson, M.C>, and Cairney, S.C. (2020) Losing control: Sleep deprivation impairs the suppression of unwanted thoughts,” Clinical Psychological Science, 1-17  https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702620951511 


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