The Regulation of Sleep-Arousal, Affect, and Attention in Adolescence: Some Questions and Speculations

Pubertal maturation includes an enormous array of changes in social and biological domains. Among these changes are developmental shifts in the control of sleep, arousal, affect, and attention – including both physiologic and behavioral changes. One major theme running through these various developmental changes is the relatively increased influence of executive functions (the use of higher cognitive processes involving regions of prefrontal cortex to guide behaviors according to social rules and long-term goals). The integration of higher cognitive processes with emotional regulation (e.g., learning to inhibit or modulate arousal, attention, and behavior to serve higher cognitive goals) creates the basis for social competence – perhaps the most important outcome variable in adolescent development. However, increased cognitive abilities to override lower levels of regulation also confer a greater capacity for cognitive ideas or attitudes to cause dysregulation at subcortical levels. In a number of ways, adolescence thus appears to represent a vulnerable period regarding the maturational integration of cognitive and emotional processes. It also appears that this highest level of cognitive-emotional integration is most sensitive to the effects of sleep deprivation or inadequate sleep.