Emotion regulation as a mediator between sleep quality and interpersonal aggression

Sufficient sleep quality is paramount for physical and mental health, and poor sleep quality effects an individual's aggressive behaviors and ability to properly regulate their emotions. However, little research has examined the relationship between sleep, emotion regulation, and aggressive interpersonal behaviors, such as trait physical aggression, verbal aggression, relationship violence, and sexual assault perpetration. Thus, the present study sought to examine emotion regulation as a mediator between poor sleep quality and these aggressive interpersonal behaviors. To test these relationships, 334 MTurk workers completed questionnaires assessing the aforementioned factors in an online survey. Results showed that emotion regulation partially mediated the relationships between sleep quality and both trait physical aggression and relationship violence perpetration and fully mediated the relationship between sleep quality and verbal aggression for all participants. Additionally, emotion regulation fully mediated the relationship between sleep quality and sexual assault perpetration for male participants. These results suggest that emotion regulation difficulties may indeed be a mechanism through which poor quality sleep leads to aggressive interpersonal behaviors.