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Introduction: Insomnia is associated with mild cognitive impairment, although the mechanisms of this impairment are not well-understood. Timing of slow-wave and rapid eye movement sleep may help explain cognitive impairments common in insomnia. This investigation aimed to determine whether cognitive changes following continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) are attributable to active stimulation, polysomnographic parameters of sleep, or both. Method: Data presented here are part of a pilot clinical trial aiming to treat insomnia by targeting a node in the defaultmode network using an inhibitory 40-s (cTBS). A double-blind counterbalanced sham-controlled crossover design was conducted. Participants (N = 20) served as their own controls on two separate in-laboratory visits--one with active cTBS and the other with sham cTBS. Each visit included cognitive assessments before and after stimulation and following a night of sleep in the lab monitored with polysomnography. Results: Slowwave sleep duration influenced workingmemory in the active cTBS condition, with shorter duration predicting improvements in working memory post sleep (B = -0.003, p = 0.095). Onset latency to rapid eye movement sleep predicted subsequent working memory, regardless of treatment condition (B = -0.001, p = 0.040). Results suggest that changes in attention and processing speed were primarily due to slow wave sleep onset (B = -0.001, p = 0.017) and marginally predicted by slowwave sleep duration (B=0.002, p=0.081) and sleep efficiency (B = 0.006, p = 0.090). Conclusions: Findings emphasize the important role that timing of slow-wave and rapid eye movement sleep have on information processing. Future work using larger sample sizes and more stimulation sessions is needed to determine optimal interactions between timing and duration of slow wave and rapid eye movement throughout the sleep period. Clinical trial registration: This study is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04953559). https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04953559?locStr=Arizona& country=United%20States&state=Arizona&cond=insomnia&intr=tms%20& rank=1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Emotional intelligence (EI) is associated with a range of positive health, wellbeing, and behavioral outcomes. The present article describes the development and validation of an online training program for increasing EI abilities in adults. The training program was based on theoretical models of emotional functioning and empirical literature on successful approaches for training socioemotional skills and resilience. Methods: After an initial design, programming, and refinement process, the completed online program was tested for efficacy in a sample of 326 participants (72% female) from the general population. Participants were randomly assigned to complete either the EI training program (n = 168) or a matched placebo control training program (n = 158). Each program involved 10-12 hours of engaging online content and was completed during either a 1-week (n = 175) or 3-week (n = 151) period. Results: Participants who completed the EI training program showed increased scores from pre- to post-training on standard self-report (i.e., trait) measures of EI (relative to placebo), indicating self-perceived improvements in recognizing emotions, understanding emotions, and managing the emotions of others. Moreover, those in the EI training also showed increased scores in standard performance-based (i.e., ability) EI measures, demonstrating an increased ability to strategically use and manage emotions relative to placebo. Improvements to performance measures also remained significantly higher than baseline when measured six months after completing the training. The training was also wellreceived and described as helpful and engaging. Discussion: Following a rigorous iterative development process, we created a comprehensive and empirically based online training program that is wellreceived and engaging. The program reliably improves both trait and ability EI outcomes and gains are sustained up to six months post-training. This program could provide an easy and scalable method for building emotional intelligence in a variety of settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construct of emotional intelligence (EI) has garnered increased attention in the popular media and scientific literature. Several competing measures of EI have been developed, including self-report and performance-based instruments. The current study replicates and expands on previous research by examining three competing EI measures (Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, MSCEIT; Bar-On Emotion Quotient Inventory, EQ-i; and Self-Rated Emotional Intelligence Scale, SREIS) and their relationships with cognitive functioning (Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence; WASI), Big Five personality traits (NEO-PI-R) and emotional well-being (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, PANAS). Results indicated that significant variability in the self-report EI measures was accounted for by personality and emotional well-being measures, whereas the MSCEIT was more strongly associated with IQ. Overall, nearly two-thirds (62%) of the variance in EQ-i scores was accounted for by Big Five personality traits, emotional well-being and full scale IQ; whereas only 14% of the variance in MSCEIT scores was accounted for by these same variables. The present findings raise questions regarding the divergent validity of self-report EI measures from existing personality and emotional well-being measures. The implication of these results and directions for future research are discussed. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a highly prevalent psychiatric condition, yet many patients do not receive adequate treatment. Novel and highly scalable interventions such as internet-based cognitive-behavioral-therapy (iCBT) may help to address this treatment gap. Anhedonia, a hallmark symptom of MDD that refers to diminished interest and ability to experience pleasure, has been associated with reduced reactivity in a neural reward circuit that includes medial prefrontal and striatal brain regions. Whether iCBT can reduce anhedonia severity in MDD patients, and whether these therapeutic effects are accompanied by enhanced reward circuit reactivity has yet to be examined. Methods: Fifty-two MDD patients were randomly assigned to either 10-week iCBT (n = 26) or monitored attention control (MAC, n = 26) programs. All patients completed pre- and post-treatment assessments of anhedonia (Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale; SHAPS) and reward circuit reactivity [monetary incentive delay (MID) task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)]. Healthy control participants (n = 42) also underwent two fMRI scans while completing the MID task 10 weeks apart. Results: Both iCBT and MAC groups exhibited a reduction in anhedonia severity post-treatment. Nevertheless, only the iCBT group exhibited enhanced nucleus accumbens (Nacc) and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) activation and functional connectivity from pre- to post-treatment in response to reward feedback. Enhanced Nacc and sgACC activations were associated with reduced anhedonia severity following iCBT treatment, with enhanced Nacc activation also mediating the reduction in anhedonia severity post-treatment. Conclusions: These findings suggest that increased reward circuit reactivity may contribute to a reduction in anhedonia severity following iCBT treatment for depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although insomnia is reliably associated with anxiety symptoms, aspects of insomnia may differentially relate to one anxiety symptom versus another. Therefore, treatment for insomnia comorbidity with anxiety might be individually tailored to optimize treatment response. Working from this hypothesis, we analyzed data from a survey of 1007 community-dwelling adults. Insomnia was measured using the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), categorizing items as nighttime disturbances, daytime dysfunction, or self-perceived dissatisfaction. Anxiety symptoms were measured with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item questionnaire (GAD-7). Linear and binomial logistic regression were used and adjusted for covariates. Post hoc forward stepwise analyses determined which components of the insomnia contributed to individual anxiety symptoms. Significant associations between nighttime disturbance (β = 0.88 [0.44, 1.3]), daytime dysfunction (β = 1.30 [0.81, 1.80]), dissatisfaction (β = 1.20 [0.60, 1.7]) and total GAD-7 score were maintained after adjusting for covariates. Nighttime disturbance was associated with excess worrying, restlessness, irritability, and fear of catastrophe. Daytime dysfunction was associated with all symptoms except for fear of catastrophe, and self-perceived dissatisfaction was associated with all symptoms except irritability. Stepwise analyses revealed that daytime dysfunction and dissatisfaction were most consistently related to anxiety symptoms. Greater attention should be paid to daytime dysfunction in patients with insomnia and anxiety, as improving daytime functioning may improve anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is known that sleep disturbance is associated with increased suicidal thinking. Moreover, completed suicides, when adjusted for the proportion of the populace that is awake at a given time, are more probable during the late night/early morning hours. Despite these concerns, no studies have examined the role of trait-like individual differences in vulnerability to suicidal ideation during sleep deprivation or insomnia. In two separate studies, we examined whether the trait of extraversion is predictive of changes in suicidal thinking following two nights of sleep deprivation and among individuals meeting the criteria for insomnia. Methods: Study 1: Twenty-five healthy military personnel (20 males), ages 20-35 completed the NEO-PI-R Extraversion scale and the Suicidal Ideation (SUI) scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI). Participants completed 77 h of continuous sleep deprivation. After 56 h of sleep deprivation, participants completed the SUI scale a second time. We predicted a change in SUI scores from baseline extraversion. Study 2: 2,061 adults aged 18-79 (900 males) were divided into two groups based on the clinical threshold (≥10) on the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and completed measures of extraversion and depression, including the suicide item of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ9). Results: Study 1: After controlling for the caffeine group and changes in PAI Depression, Extraversion scores were used to predict changes in SUI scores using stepwise multiple linear regression. Higher Extraversion was significantly associated with increased non-clinical suicidal ideation following sleep loss, β = 0.463, partial r = 0.512, p = 0.013. Study 2: After controlling for depression, the effect of insomnia on suicidal ideation was moderated by trait extraversion (p < 0.0001). Overall, the presence or absence of insomnia had little effect on individuals low in trait extraversion (i.e., introverts), but insomnia was associated with significantly higher suicidal ideation among high trait extraverted individuals. Conclusions: Higher trait extraversion was associated with increased vulnerability to suicidal ideation between rested baseline and total sleep deprivation and was associated with greater suicidal ideation among those meeting criteria for clinically severe insomnia. These findings point to a potential trait-like vulnerability factor that may further our understanding of sleep disruption in the phenomenology of suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Repetitive sub-concussive head impacts (RSHIs) are common in American football and result in changes to the microstructural integrity of white matter. Both docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaoic acid (EPA) supplementation exerted neuroprotective effects against RSHIs in animal models and in a prior study in football players supplemented with DHA alone. Objective: Here, we present exploratory neuroimaging outcomes from a randomized controlled trial of DHA + EPA supplementation in American football players. We hypothesized that supplementation would result in less white matter integrity loss on diffusion weighted imaging over the season. Design, setting, participants: We conducted a double-blind placebo-controlled trial in 38 American football players between June 2019 and January 2020. Intervention: Participants were randomized to the treatment (2.442 g/day DHA and 1.020 g/day EPA) or placebo group for five times-per-week supplementation for 7 months. Of these, 27 participants were included in the neuroimaging data analysis (n = 16 placebo; n = 11 DHA + EPA). Exploratory outcome measures: Changes in white matter integrity were quantified using both voxelwise diffusion kurtosis scalars and deterministic tractography at baseline and end of season. Additional neuroimaging outcomes included changes in regional gray matter volume as well as intra-regional, edge-wise, and network level functional connectivity. Serum neurofilament light (NfL) provided a peripheral biomarker of axonal damage. Results: No voxel-wise between-group differences were identified on diffusion tensor metrics. Deterministic tractography using quantitative anisotropy (QA) revealed increased structural connectivity in ascending corticostriatal fibers and decreased connectivity in long association and commissural fibers in the DHA+EPA group compared to the placebo group. Serum NfL increases were correlated with increased mean (ρ = 0.47), axial (ρ = 0.44), and radial (ρ = 0.51) diffusivity and decreased QA (ρ = -0.52) in the corpus callosum and bilateral corona radiata irrespective of treatment group. DHA + EPA supplementation did preserve default mode/frontoparietal control network connectivity (g = 0.96, p = 0.024). Conclusions: These exploratory findings did not provide strong evidence that DHA + EPA prevented or protected against axonal damage as quantified via neuroimaging. Neuroprotective effects on functional connectivity were observed despite whitematter damage. Further studies with larger samples are needed to fully establish the relationship between omega-3 supplementation, RSHIs, and neuroimaging biomarkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disrupted sleep is a major feature in numerous clinical disorders and is related to decrements in affective memory processing. The prevalence of sleep disruption in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is suggested to be a key feature that exacerbates the impaired ability to recall extinction memories during experimental fear conditioning. We hypothesized that an intervention employing blue-wavelength light therapy (BLT) to regulate sleep and stabilize circadian rhythms in patients with PTSD (i.e., via regulated morning exposure) would be associated with PTSD symptom improvement, decreased sleep-related complaints, as well as improved consolidation and retention of extinction memories relative to a fear conditioning/extinction paradigm. Eighty-two individuals with PTSD underwent a well-validated fear conditioning/extinction protocol with subsequent assignment to receive morning BLUE (BLT) or placebo AMBER (ALT) light therapy daily for 30-min over 6-weeks. Participants returned after the intervention for post-treatment extinction recall, comprised of exposure to the previously conditioned stimuli, with the difference in skin conductance response between the "extinguished" and the "never-extinguished" stimuli at follow-up. Participants also viewed previously conditioned stimuli in a novel context during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan. BLUE light therapy was associated with improvements relative to correlated decreases between PTSD symptoms and sleep-related complaints. Participants receiving BLT also sustained retention of the extinction memory, while those in the placebo amber light treatment group showed impairment, characterized by the restoration of the extinguished fear response after 6-weeks. Participants in the ALT also demonstrated greater reactivity in the left insula when viewing the previously extinguished fear-conditioned stimuli in a novel context. Daily BLUE-wavelength morning light exposure was associated with greater retention of extinction learning in patients with PTSD when compared to ALT, as supported by both autonomic and neurobiological reactivity. We speculate that improved sleep facilitated by a stabilized circadian rhythm, after fear-learning, led to greater consolidation of the fear extinction memory, decreased PTSD symptom presentation, and associated decreases in sleeprelated complaints. Prominent exposure treatments for PTSD incorporate principles of fear extinction, and our findings suggest that blue light treatment may facilitate treatment gains by promoting the consolidation of extinction memories via improved sleep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with numerous cognitive, affective, and psychophysiological outcomes, including problems with sleep and circadian rhythms. We tested the effectiveness of a daily morning blue-light exposure treatment (BLT) versus a matched amber light treatment (ALT) to regulate sleep in individuals diagnosed with PTSD. Moreover, PTSD is also associated with reliable findings on structural neuroimaging scans, including reduced amygdala volumes and other differences in cortical gray matter volume (GMV) that may be indicative of underlying neurobehavioral dysfunctions. We examined the effect of BLT versus ALT on GMV and its association with sleep outcomes. Methods: Seventy-six individuals (25 male; 51 female) meeting DSM-V criteria for PTSD (Age = 31.45 years, SD = 8.83) completed sleep assessments and structural neuroimaging scans, followed by random assignment one of two light groups, including BLT (469 nm; n = 39) or placebo ALT (578 nm; n = 37) light therapy daily for 30-min over 6-weeks. Participants wore a wrist actigraph for the duration of the study. After treatment, participants returned to complete sleep assessments and a structural neuroimaging scan. Neuroimaging data were analyzed using the Computational Anatomy Toolbox (CAT12) and Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) modules within the Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM12) software. Results: The BLT condition produced significant increases in total time in bed and total sleep time from actigraphy compared to the ALT condition, while ALT improved wake after sleep onset and sleep efficiency compared to BLT. Additionally, BLT led to an increase in left amygdala volume compared to ALT but did not affect hypothesized medial prefrontal regions. Finally, within group correlations showed that improvements in sleep quality and nightmare severity were correlated with increases in left amygdala volume over the course of treatment for the BLT group but not the ALT group. Conclusion: In individuals with PTSD, daily exposure to morning blue light treatment was associated with improvements in objective sleep duration and increased volume of the left amygdala compared to amber placebo light treatment, and changes in amygdala volume correlated with subjective improvement in sleep. These findings suggest that daily morning BLT may provide an important non-pharmacologic adjunctive approach for facilitating sleep and neurobehavioral recovery from PTSD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nightmares are often associated with psychiatric disorders and acute stress. This study explores how the COVID‐19 pandemic may have influenced the content of nightmares. A sample of N = 419 US adults completed online surveys about sleep and COVID‐19 experiences. Participants were asked about the degree to which they agreed with statements linking greater general stress, worse overall sleep and more middle‐of‐the‐night insomnia with the COVID‐19 pandemic. They were also asked if, during the pandemic, they experienced nightmares related to various themes. Logistic regression analyses examined each nightmare content as outcome and increased stress, worse sleep and more middle‐of‐the‐night insomnia as predictors, adjusted for age, sex and race/ethnicity. Those who reported greater general COVID‐related stress were more likely to have nightmares about confinement, failure, helplessness, anxiety, war, separation, totalitarianism, sickness, death, COVID and an apocalypse. Those who reported worsened sleep were more likely to have nightmares about confinement, oppression, failure, helplessness, disaster, anxiety, evil forces, war, domestic abuse, separation, totalitarianism, sickness, death, COVID and an apocalypse. Those who reported worsened middle‐of‐the‐night insomnia were more likely to have nightmares about confinement, oppression, failure, helplessness, disaster, anxiety, war, domestic abuse, separation, totalitarianism, sickness, death, COVID and an apocalypse. These results suggest that increased pandemic‐related stress may induce negatively‐toned dreams of specific themes. Future investigation might determine whether (and when) this symptom indicates an emotion regulation mechanism at play, or the failure of such a mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Female menstrual health and its relationship with sleep is an understudied subject. The aim of this investigation was to determine the association between the two in a community sample. Data were obtained from n = 579 menstruating females who participated in the Sleep and Health Activity, Diet, Environment, and Socialization (SHADES) study, a community‐based sample of adults aged 22–60 years. Participants were asked, "How regular is your period?", with response choices of "very regular", "mostly regular", "fairly regular" and "not regular". They were also asked, "How much bleeding do you usually experience during your period?" Response choices were: "very heavy", "heavy", "medium", "light" or "very light". These were evaluated as ordinal outcomes. Sleep‐related predictors included sleep duration (in hr; ≤ 6 [short], 7–9 [normal] and ≥ 9 [long]), Insomnia Severity Index score, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score, Epworth Sleepiness Scale score and Fatigue Severity Scale score. Covariates included age, education, income, race/ethnicity and body mass index. Short sleep duration was associated with heavier bleeding (odds ratio = 1.46, p = 0.026) and greater cycle irregularity (odds ratio = 1.44, p = 0.031) as compared with normal sleep. Higher Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score was associated with greater cycle irregularity (odds ratio = 1.05, p = 0.022). Higher Fatigue Severity Scale score was associated with heavier bleeding (odds ratio = 1.02, p = 0.003) and greater cycle irregularity (odds ratio = 1.02, p = 0.008). Long sleep, Insomnia Severity Index and Epworth Sleepiness Scale were not associated with either outcome. These results demonstrate an association between short sleep duration, poor sleep quality, fatigue, stress and depression with heavier bleeding and menstrual cycle irregularity, highlighting the need for further studies to improve treatment options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anxiety and depression are often associated with strong beliefs that entering specific situations will lead to aversive outcomes – even when these situations are objectively safe and avoiding them reduces well-being. A possible mechanism underlying this maladaptive avoidance behavior is a failure to reflect on: (1) appropriate levels of uncertainty about the situation, and (2) how this uncertainty could be reduced by seeking further information (i.e., exploration). To test this hypothesis, we asked a community sample of 416 individuals to complete measures of reflective cognition, exploration, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found significant associations between each of these measures in expected directions (i.e., positive relationships between reflective cognition and strategic information-seeking behavior or "directed exploration", and negative relationships between these measures and anxiety/depression symptoms). Further analyses suggested that the relationship between directed exploration and depression/anxiety was due in part to an ambiguity aversion promoting exploration in conditions where information-seeking was not beneficial (as opposed to only being due to under-exploration when more information would aid future choices). In contrast, reflectiveness was associated with greater exploration in appropriate settings and separately accounted for differences in reaction times, decision noise, and choice accuracy in expected directions. These results shed light on the mechanisms underlying information-seeking behavior and how they may contribute to symptoms of emotional disorders. They also highlight the potential clinical relevance of individual differences in reflectiveness and exploration and should motivate future research on their possible contributions to vulnerability and/or maintenance of affective disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: People differ in their propensity to engage in risky behaviors. Numerous factors such as cognition and personality have been utilized in predicting risk-taking, but little is known about the influence of stable emotional competencies, such as Emotional Intelligence (EI), in risk-taking. EI is defined as the ability and capacity to understand, perceive, and manage one's own, as well as others', emotions. However there has been little published research on the effect of ability emotional intelligence in engaging in risk- taking behavior. We hypothesized that those with higher emotional intelligence ability scores would demonstrate higher and more optimal risk-taking propensity. Furthermore, as prior research has demonstrated that males engage in more risk-taking behaviors, we accounted for sex differences within our analysis. Participants and Methods: One-hundred and twelve healthy adults completed this study, including 56 females (Mage=21.7, SD=5.8) and 56 males (Mage=21.5, SD=3.2). The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) was used to assess total EI ability while the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) was used to assess risk-taking propensity. We specifically analyzed adjusted number of pumps on unexploded balloons throughout the BART to account for the increased risk. We conducted Pearson correlations and a multiple regression to assess the if ability emotional intelligence and gender significantly predicted risk-taking propensity. Results: There was a significant correlation between total emotional intelligence ability score and adjusted number of pumps on the BART for females, r(55)=.362, p =.006, but not for males r(55)=.053, p=.701, suggesting that females who score higher in emotional intelligence ability also had a higher risk-taking propensity. Due to these findings, we conducted a multiple regression to assess if ability emotional intelligence and gender significantly predict risk-taking propensity on the BART. The results of the regression indicated the two predictors explained 9.0% of the variance (R2 =.09, F(2,108)=5.32, p<.01). However, it was found that ability emotional intelligence significantly predicted risk-taking propensity (β =.23, p<.05), but not sex (β = -.17, p=.06). There was no sex x EI interaction. Conclusions: Higher ability emotional intelligence was significantly related to greater risk-taking propensity, but this was only observed for females. However, the lack of significance of sex in significantly predicting risk-taking may just be due to lower statistical power in the study. Importantly, the adjusted number of pumps for the participants in this sample was generally far below the mid-point for popping balloons, suggesting that the higher scores observed here represent more optimal decision performance rather than just greater risk. Thus, greater EI may reflect greater capacity to learn from reward and punishment feedback and apply that learning to optimize performance. Future research should look at the effect of emotional intelligence training in improving optimal risk-taking, particularly for populations known for engaging in risky behaviors such as those with mTBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Chronic insomnia is a highly prevalent disorder affecting approximately one-in-three Americans. Insomnia is associated with increased cognitive and brain arousal. Compared to healthy individuals, those with insomnia tend to show greater activation/connectivity within the default mode network (DMN) of the brain, consistent with the hyperarousal theory. We investigated whether it would be possible to suppress activation of the DMN to improve sleep using a type of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) known as continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS). Participants and Methods: Participants (n=9, 6 female; age=25.4, SD=5.9 years) meeting criteria for insomnia/sleep disorder on standardized scales completed a counterbalanced sham-controlled crossover design in which they served as their own controls on two separate nights of laboratory monitored sleep on separate weeks. Each session included two resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions separated by a brief rTMS session. Stimulation involved a 40 second cTBS stimulation train applied over an easily accessible cortical surface node of the DMN located at the left inferior parietal lobe. After scanning/stimulation, the participant was escorted to an isolated sleep laboratory bedroom, fitted with polysomnography (PSG) electrodes, and allowed an 8-hour sleep opportunity from 2300 to 0700. PSG was monitored continuously and scored for standard outcomes, including total sleep time (TST), percentage of time various sleep stages, and number of arousals. Results: Consistent with our hypothesis, a single session of active cTBS produced a significant reduction of functional connectivity (p <.05, FDR corrected) within the DMN. In contrast, the sham condition produced no changes in functional connectivity from pre- to post-treatment. Furthermore, after controlling for age, we also found that the active treatment was associated with meaningful trends toward greater overnight improvements in sleep compared to the sham condition. First, the active cTBS condition was associated with significantly greater TST compared to sham (F(1,7)=14.19, p=.007, partial eta-squared=.67). Overall, individuals obtained 26.5 minutes more sleep on the nights that they received the active cTBS compared to the sham condition. Moreover, the active cTBS condition was associated with a significant increase in the percentage of time in rapid eye movement (REM%) sleep compared to the sham condition (F(1,7)=7.05, p=.033, partial eta-squared=.50), which was significant after controlling for age. Overall, active treatment was associated with an increase of 6.76% more of total sleep time in REM compared to sham treatment. Finally, active cTBS was associated with fewer arousals from sleep (t(8) = -1.84, p =.051, d =.61), with an average of 15.1 fewer arousals throughout the night than sham. Conclusions: Overall, these findings suggest that this simple and brief cTBS approach can alter DMN brain functioning in the expected direction and was associated with trends toward improved objectively measured sleep, including increased TST and REM% and fewer arousals during the night following stimulation. These findings emerged after only a single 40-second treatment, and it remains to be seen whether multiple treatments over several days or weeks can sustain or even improve upon these outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]