Going to bed angry will stop you getting to sleep

MOST couples know you should never go to bed on an argument.

But anger won’t just harm your relationship – it could also ruin your sleep, researchers claim.

Those who are angry generally, and struggle to keep their temper, sleep worse, they say.

They are believed to keep themselves awake by dwelling on their frustrations and find it harder to achieve the calmness they need to drop off. There may even be a physical reason, as feelings of anger increase cardiovascular activity, which makes it harder to fall asleep.

Psychologists from Iowa State University based their findings on 436 volunteers whose sleep was monitored after completing an anger questionnaire.

Writing in the Journal of Research in Personality, they state: ‘Being prone to anger may lead to poor sleep and anger and sleep are intimately connected.’

Study participants were asked questions designed to determine if they were quick-tempered.

Then they were sorted into groups based on how they dealt with anger – the ‘anger-in’ group, the ‘anger-out’ group and people with ‘anger-control’.

The people who controlled their anger, saying they would ‘keep my cool’ under pressure, got better quality sleep during a week of being tracked.

But those who repressed their rage, within the ‘anger-in’ group, got worse sleep by comparison. Those who did not let their anger out by saying ‘nasty things’, but instead chose to ‘boil inside’ still lost out on sleep.

‘Keep cool under pressure’