Sleep Disruption as an Amplifier of Aggressive Behavior

鉴于攻击性对个人、人际关系和社会的负面影响，了解是什么导致攻击性行为至关重要。虽然研究已经证明了一些可能引发攻击性行为的诱因条件，但很少有人注意到睡眠不足在调节攻击性方面可能起到的作用。适当的睡眠是最佳社会和情绪功能的先决条件，睡眠中断越来越常见；然而，它在攻击性等社会行为中扮演的角色在很大程度上是未知的。这个项目将测试一个新的理论模型，该模型假设睡眠限制会导致攻击性思维、情绪和行为的增加。这项研究将阐明睡眠限制的重要社会后果，测试这些影响是否由认知功能的变化驱动，并最终阐明睡眠中断是如何导致社会适应受损和行为问题的。拟议中的研究将测试对睡眠限制的情绪、认知和自我控制反应如何导致攻击性行为。参与者将被随机分配，要么遵循他们的常规睡眠规律，要么在两个工作日内限制他们的睡眠时间为4小时。之后，他们将返回实验室，在那里将检查他们的情绪和行为反应。一系列实验将检验睡眠限制对愤怒、敌意和攻击性反应的不同衡量标准的潜在后果，以及计划和推理的认知能力。这项研究将使睡眠中断的神经行为效应与复杂的情绪和社会行为之间存在新的联系。归根结底，鉴于睡眠是一个可改变的风险因素，对睡眠干扰如何影响攻击性的更好的理论和基于过程的理解将使更有效的干预策略适用于攻击行为的高危个体(例如罪犯)和旨在减少攻击行为的社会机构(例如学校)。

It is vitally important to understand what leads to aggressive behavior, given the negative impact of aggression on individuals, relationships, and society. While research has documented some eliciting conditions that can precipitate aggressive behavior, there has been little attention paid to the role that a lack of sleep may play in modulating aggression. Proper sleep is a pre-requisite for optimal social and emotional functioning and sleep disruption is increasingly common; however, the role it plays in social behaviors such as aggression is largely unknown. This project will test a novel theoretical model, which posits that sleep restriction can cause increases in aggressive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. The research will elucidate important social consequences of sleep restriction, test whether the effects are driven by changes in cognitive functioning, and ultimately illuminate how sleep disruption contributes to impaired social adjustment and behavioral problems.The proposed research will test how emotional, cognitive, and self-control responses to sleep restriction may contribute to aggressive behavior. Participants will be randomly assigned to either follow their regular sleep routines or to restrict their sleep by 4 hours over two working days. Afterwards, they will return to the laboratory where their emotional and behavioral responding will be examined. A series of experiments will examine potential consequences of sleep restriction on different measures of anger, hostility, and aggressive responding, as well as cognitive abilities to plan and reason. This research will enable novel linkages of well-established neurobehavioral effects of sleep disruption to complex emotions and social behavior. Ultimately, given that sleep is a modifiable risk factor, a better theoretical and process-based understanding of how aggression is affected by sleep disturbance will enable more effective intervention strategies for individuals at-risk for aggressive behavior (e.g., offenders) and for social institutions motivated to reduce aggressive behavior (e.g., schools).