Sleep and Social Behavior: Neural interactions of sleep regulation and social dominance

Abstract Sleep disorders can perpetuate mental health conditions and negative social interactions. Additionally, research shows that individuals who develop socially debilitating disorders like PTSD, anxiety, and depression also report increased sleep disturbances. Exacerbating this issue, increased sleep debt due to sleep disruption from mental illness can potentiate further sleep dysregulation. Chronic social stress can lead to the development of sleep disorders, due to negative interactions in both natural and manmade power dynamics (including parent, employer, and even government related stressors). Hierarchical dynamics can lead to inequitable treatment and widespread health consequences, due to environmentally-imposed social dominance. At present, researchers are investigating behavioral and neural connections of sleep regulation and negative social interactions in mental health, including the impacts of these social dominance structures. For example, several limbic circuits, including the extended amygdala, hypothalamus, and medial prefrontal cortex have been identified in regulating sleep and social stress interactions. These neural connectivity patterns underlie mechanisms of how maladaptive responses to stress are associated with poor sleep regulation, providing novel targets for potential behavioral or neuromodulatory therapies. Our review explores discoveries regarding sleep and social behaviors in both human and rodent models, including current studies on neural mechanisms and genetic markers involved in the impacts of social stress-related dominance hierarchies on sleep/wake regulation. Establishing how social dynamics directly affect sleep quality and stress-related behaviors, and the reciprocal, will add to the growing body of research connecting disordered sleep to mental illness progression. This paper is part of the Sleep and Circadian Mechanisms in Mental Health Collection.