Social interactions, emotion and sleep: A systematic review and research agenda

Abstract

Sleep and emotion are closely linked, however the effects of sleep on socio-emotional task performance have only recently been investigated. Sleep loss and insomnia have been found to affect emotional reactivity and social functioning, although results, taken together, are somewhat contradictory. Here we review this advancing literature, aiming to 1) systematically review the relevant literature on sleep and socio-emotional functioning, with reference to the extant literature on emotion and social interactions, 2) summarize results and outline ways in which emotion, social interactions, and sleep may interact, and 3) suggest key limitations and future directions for this field. From the reviewed literature, sleep deprivation is associated with diminished emotional expressivity and impaired emotion recognition, and this has particular relevance for social interactions. Sleep deprivation also increases emotional reactivity; results which are most apparent with neuro-imaging studies investigating amygdala activity and its prefrontal regulation. Evidence of emotional dysregulation in insomnia and poor sleep has also been reported. In general, limitations of this literature include how performance measures are linked to self-reports, and how results are linked to socio-emotional functioning. We conclude by suggesting some possible future directions for this field.

Effects of 25 mg oxazepam on emotional mimicry and empathy for pain: a randomized controlled experiment

“…This would seem to be at odds with the anxiolytic effects for which oxazepam is used. One explanation could be that oxazepam caused increased sleepiness, which is known to cause worse ratings of subjective experience [78]. While oxazepam is not mainly prescribed for its hypnotic properties, our reaction time results showed that participants in the oxazepam group did show a decrease in psychomotor vigilance, consistent with this interpretation.…”

Shortened sleep fuels inflammatory responses to marital conflict: Emotion regulation matters

“…The PSQI has good internal consistency and discriminant validity (Buysse et al, 1989). This past-month sleep measure served as a covariate to separate the role of acute sleep patterns from longer-term problems, which may affect inflammation and behavior through different mechanisms (Beattie et al, 2015). …”

“…Gender was included to account for husband-wife differences in behavior and inflammatory responses to conflict. Own and partner chronic sleep problems (PSQI) served to separate the role of acute sleep patterns from longer-term sleep problems, which may affect inflammation and behavior through different mechanisms (Beattie et al, 2015). Own or partner marital satisfaction was added to parse out the effects of general relationship quality on inflammation from sleep-specific effects (Robles et al, 2014).…”

Time Perspective Biases Are Associated With Poor Sleep Quality, Daytime Sleepiness, and Lower Levels of Subjective Well-Being Among Older Adults

“…Sleep serves many homeostatic processes and is essential for physical health, cognitive performance, and socio-emotional functioning (e.g., Beattie et al, 2015; Scullin and Bliwise, 2015; Patrick et al, 2017). One important aspect of sleep is the extent to which one perceives it to be free from disturbances, i.e., sleep quality.…”