Lack of sleep might be the reason behind anger and aggression throughout the day, a recent study has found.
While distress frequently follows curtailed sleep, the fatigue that follows might in fact mute or neutralise the anger. So, even though links have been observed between sleep disruption and anger, no systematic study has been conducted to affirm them.
In the words of Zlatan Krizan, Professor of Psychology at Iowa State,
To examine the contradictory possibilities, a Iowa State University research, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, found 142 community residents who were randomly assigned to either maintain or restrict their sleep over 2 days. They were told to rate their anger before and after the process through a product-rating task while aversive noise played in the background. This noise factor was induced to make the condition uncomfortable in order to provoke anger.
Krizan also added, “Despite typical tendencies to get somewhat used to irritating conditions - an uncomfortable shirt or a barking dog - sleep-restricted individuals actually showed a trend toward increased anger and distress, essentially reversing their ability to adapt to frustrating conditions over time. No one has shown this before.”
The research also explained that the individual’s subjective sense of sleepiness may also influence his/her anger.
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