Chronic sleep loss may trigger a series of negative emotions that may cause us to act out relationship-damaging behaviors.The more we miss out on decent sleep the more we become irritable, emotionally labile, our frustration tolerance is lowered, and we show up negatively.

Sleep-deprived partners

In order to cultivate and maintain a healthy relationship both partners must have or are developing the following skills:
<ul>
<li>To be able to make sound decisions</li>
<li>The ability to put themselves in a good mood</li>
<li>To be able to rein in their bad mood or irritability</li>
<li>The ability to solve problems</li>
<li>The ability to effectively communicate with their partner</li>
<li>They must be able to tolerate frustration; and </li>
<li>They must be able to practice empathy</li>
</ul>

Important skills to maintain healthy relationships

When one or both partners are not well-rested, tiny quarrels may end up in major rifts. Sleep loss triggers the many relationship behaviors and communication styles we know are most toxic to relationships such as silent treatment or berating your partner.The importance of sleep in relationships shows how severe our attitude gets when deprived of it and in order to have a healthy level of conflict, we must be well-rested enough to engage properly during the conflict.

Conflict in relationships 

Having poor sleep heightens our feelings of loneliness which results in us wanting to steer away from people and a rise in anxiety levels.In addition to that, having poor sleep amplifies the parts of the brain that signals our threat responses and fear.Sleep-induced loneliness is contagious and may lead to a greater emotional distancing between partners, so if you want a solid relationship, get good sleep!

Sleep deprivation and loneliness

When we are sleep deprived our empathic accuracy drops. The words we use to communicate are colored by our sleep or the lack thereof.It's been proven by numerous studies that under sleep-deprived conditions, there is a significant decrease in the use of positive emotion words. Furthermore, the results also show that there is a lower positive emotional expression and higher negative emotional expression.

Empathic Accuracy

It’s time to start prioritizing sleep as a mutual goal within your relationship. Here's why, explains sleep scientist Wendy M. Troxel PhD.

Conflict in relationships

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