Researchers have found that the type of sleep most apt to calm and reset the anxious brain is deep sleep, also known as non-rapid eye movement (NREM) slow-wave sleep, a state in which neural oscillations become highly synchronized, and heart rates and blood pressure drops.
A sleepless night can trigger up to a 30 percent rise in anxiety levels, researchers from the University of California said.
“We have identified a new function of a deep sleep, one that decreases anxiety overnight by reorganizing connections in the brain,” said study senior author Professor Matthew Walker.