Sleep Deprivation Can Lead to Increased Physiologically Based Irritability in College Students

While sleep deprivation has been thoroughly researched in association to cognitive and physiological effects, very few have evaluated its association with irritability. This study addresses the relationship between sleep and irritability using physiological data and includes a research model to aid future experiments on irritability and neighboring mood concepts.

Thirty-four US undergraduate students participated in a physiologically based study on irritability. Participants were separated into two groups based on sleep recommendations adapted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for college students. The experiment consisted of three cognitive tasks paired with irritable stimuli, all done while undergoing heart rate (HR) measurements.

The mean length of time participants slept throughout the study was 7.70 hours, which was higher than initially expected. Significant increases seen in HR during periods of the Insoluble Puzzle task possibly indicate that task duration, perceived reward blocking, and participant expectation can play a significant role in inducing irritability when sleep deprived (p = .014, p = .045).

These findings indicate that exposure to an irritating stimulus can have a physiological impact on a sleep-deprived individual. Importantly, this study is also practically applicable to other researchers as it presents a research model that serves as a guideline for future research on irritability and its neighboring concepts.