Good Sleep: Another Essential Factor for Healthy Anger

Anger, when destructively managed, contributes to health problems, undermines relationships as well as a career, can lead to loss of freedom and has been shown to contribute to accidents. A wide range of factors contributes to anger arousal, including early childhood experiences that might include physical and emotional abuse, neglect and early loss. Additionally, problems of early attachment and its influence on the emotional regulation further influence the intensity and frequency of anger. These are most strongly associated with “trait anger”–an individual’s ongoing and characteristic proneness to anger. By contrast “State-anger” is anger triggered by situational factors such as alcohol use, physical or emotional fatigue, stress regarding relationships, work and finances may also contribute to anger.

A lack of sleep or poor sleep rarely makes it to this list of factors that can make one prone to anger arousal. In my clinical work, I’ve observed that individuals who experience a night of poor sleep, whether defined by the amount or quality, often report feeling more “emotionally brittle”. They describe being more easily frustrated, feel less focused and even more anxious–all reactions that lead them to feel less fully present in their personal interactions. It makes perfect sense that a sleep deficit contributes to anger–given that healthy anger depends on being able to “pause” to reflect on, rather than react to anger.

On any given day, influenced by such a lack, they might even find their inner self-talk a little more critical of others and themselves. While these reactions may seem stronger for individuals who have a history of trait anger, even those with state anger report experiencing them.

Insomnia

Source: 123rfStockPhoto/KatarzynaBialasiewicz

Some of my clients report that, when sleep deprived, they are quicker to honk a horn when driving and more easily feel frustrated with other drivers who they perceive as driving too slowly–or too fast. Others report being more short-tempered with a partner, their children, or co-workers.

From these observations and my own experience, I’m tempted to believe that there must be some formula that reflects the interaction of time and quality of sleep, arriving at some magic number–below which, leads to vulnerability to anxiety, anger, and quickness to feel frustrated.

Most studies regarding sleep and anger have tended to focus on the impact of anger on sleep. These have found that anger, like anxiety, contribute to poor sleep. While all of the functions of sleep are not fully known, recent research indicates that sleep aids physiological functions including toxin disposal and physiological growth and repair. On a subjective level, according to a national poll, 65% of individuals report that having quality sleep improves their functioning (2018).

These studies find that anger, like anxiety, contributes to poor sleep, both in terms of duration and quality. Additionally, this finding extends to individuals who exhibit aggression or antisocial behavior. Such difficulty might relate to the more frequent arousal of the physiological reactions associated with the “fight-flight or freeze- response. I’ve often heard my clients report rumination regarding how others or the world is not acting in accordance with their blueprint of how it “should be”. Such rumination, like anxiety, contributes to physiological reactions that compete with falling asleep as well as staying asleep.

However, a recent study conducted by Zlatan Krizan and Garrett Hisler, at Iowa University more fully explored the impact of sleep on anger (2018). As part of their research, they randomly assigned 142 community residents to maintain or restrict their sleep over 2 days. One group was subjected to sleep restriction to 5 to 6 hours. Anger tendency and sleepiness were evaluated both before sleep and after sleep. Each group was then subjected to differing levels of provocation. Only individuals without a sleep disorder or mental or physical illness were allowed to be in the study.

The participants were subjected to the sound of white noise in headphones, provided at varying intensities (often used as an aversive stimulus in research). The individuals were told the study related to “product evaluations under environmental noise”. They were shown different products following the treatment and were asked about the likeliness they would purchase the item. Additionally, they were asked to complete an assessment of mood. Self-reported descriptions of their moods were also used as part of the assessment. And finally, they were asked to respond to several vignettes that depicted “unintentional harm”. And finally, they completed an assessment to determine the degree to which they experienced trait anger–an ongoing disposition to anger arousal.

The results indicate that losing even a moderate amount of sleep can leave individuals prone to anger arousal. It is also important to note, that this impact applied to all individuals whose sleep was restricted–those prone to anger as well as others who evidenced lower trait anger. Subjectively reported sleepiness was highly associated with increased vulnerability to anger.

There are several hypotheses as to why a sleep deficit may impact anger arousal. Some suggest cognitive functioning might be impaired by a sleep deficit. One perspective is that there may be an increased sensitivity to experience threat and therefore increased proneness for physiological arousal that is part of anger. Another explanation is that the connectivity between the prefrontal cortex (that part of the brain related to decision making, planning, etc.) and the amygdala (that part of the brain related to emotional threat and arousal) may be weakened as an outcome of a sleep deficit.

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This study expands upon our knowledge of the impact of poor sleep described in several other studies. One study found that when a couple argues on a given night, and either partner has a sleep deficit that night, they are much more likely to have a conflict and empathize less the next day (2013). For this reason, amongst others, I encourage couples not to argue into the night. One partner or both of them may believe they are getting closer to a resolution, but it is not worth the potential irritability that follows a night of poor sleep.

In a review of current research regarding the impact of sleep deficit, it was found that sleep deprivation can exacerbate pre-existing mood disturbances such as anger, depression, and anxiety and can contribute to confusion, fatigue and lack of vigor. The results of their review indicate only minor differences between males and females across various age groups.

In another earlier study, it was found that a sleep deficit among forensic psychiatric patients was associated with greater impulsivity, self-reported aggression, clinician-rated hostility and involvement in aggressive incidents in the facility (2013).

How we manage anger encompasses habits in our thinking, feeling and behaving. Changing habits takes commitment, patience, and time. However, it’s important to remember that regardless of how we manage anger, our quickness and frequency to anger arousal, any experience that decreases the power of judgment over emotion makes us more vulnerable to anger. Now, we have research that confirms that a sleep deficit can be added to that list of situational factors that foster anger arousal. As such, anyone involved in teaching or learning constructive anger management should highlight quality sleep as an essential element of such practice.