Sleep Deprivation Research

Sleep disruption can be defined as any essential deviation in sleep quantity, integration, or timing relative to the optimal sleep needed by a given individual (usually between seven and nine hours of uninterrupted sleep during the night). Sleep disruption is typically focused on total sleep deprivation, showing that skipping sleep completely leads to decrease vigilance, problems with cognitive control, and impaired mental flexibility (Kirzan and Herlache, 2015). There is a little research on sleep disruption and aggression. However, prior research suggests that sleep loss is one of many risk factors for impulsive, reactive aggression leading to psychiatric disorders or prefrontal cortical dysfunction (Kamphuis, Meerlo, Koolhaas, and Lancel,
Proactive aggression is defined as a planning, thoughtful behavior that is motivated to gain an objective for personal gain. Reactive aggression happens when responding to danger or aggravation and is more impulsive than proactive aggression (Fite, Becker, Rubens, and Cheathm-Johnson, 2015). There are two studies that examined the difference between aggression type and sleep functioning. Dodge et al. (1997) found a tendency for sleep disorders to be common with reactively aggressive compared to proactively aggressive juvenile offenders. Becker (2014) found reactive aggression to be significantly correlated with child-reported sleep problems. Nevertheless, there was no connection found between proactive aggression and sleep problems (Fite, Becker, Rubens, and Cheathm-Johnson, 2015). Arousal resulting from the experience of negative emotions might explain the association between reactive aggressions and sleep problems. Reactive aggression is correlated with behavioral and physiological signs of emotional arousal, and physiological and psychological arousal contributes to sleep difficulties (Fite, Becker, Rubens, and Cheathm-Johnson,
Human survey research already documented the correlations between self-reports of the individual differences in aggression and low sleep amount or quality with both children and adults. In addition, there are several studies that showed that violent offenders showed reductions in aggression following treatment of comorbid sleep problems. Also, there is neurobiological evidence that showed that sleep deprivation reduces activity in the prefrontal cortex (involved in executive functioning and inhibitory processing) and its functional connectivity to the amygdala (involved in emotional responses to threat) providing a biological basis for expecting more uncontrolled and reactive aggression under threat (Krizan and Herlache, 2015). In contrast, there is no direct experimental support for an impact of sleep disruption on aggressive behavior. Despite the fact that the experimental animal research has found that increased fighting and matricide in rats following REM sleep deprivation, and few published experiments have found no changes in aggression