For people with insomnia, sleep does not reduce the shame of an embarrassing experience. For them, the distress does not fade; in fact, it can get worse with recall.

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This was one of the findings of a new study from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam.

The study also revealed how brain differences between people with and without insomnia might explain it.

A new paper in the journal Brain describes how, using MRI scans, the researchers examined brain activity in people with and without insomnia.

The participants underwent the scans as they relived embarrassing experiences from decades ago plus a recent memory from just a week ago.

The scans showed that, when the group without insomnia relived old embarrassing memories, the brain circuits they activated were “markedly different” to those they activated as they recalled more recent embarrassing memories.

However, when those with insomnia recalled old embarrassing memories, the brain circuits they activated overlapped with the circuits that were active when they relived new embarrassing memories.

The overlaps occurred particularly in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which connects parts of the brain involved with emotional and cognitive processing.

First study author Rick Wassing says that in people with insomnia, sleep does not help alleviate emotional distress. “In fact,” he adds, “their restless nights can even make them feel worse.”