ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Waking up on the wrong side of the bed: Sleep duration moderates the link between adolescent trait aggression and observed aggressive behaviour
Provisionally accepted
- 1Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
- 2Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden
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Introduction: Prior research suggests that insufficient sleep can increase aggressive behaviour in adolescents. However, few studies have employed controlled designs, and none have incorporated objective measures of aggression. Moreover, the potential moderating role of sleep in the relationship between trait aggression and aggressive behaviour remains unexplored. This study addressed these gaps by investigating whether sleep duration and quality moderates the association between trait aggression and objectively-measured aggressive behaviour in adolescents. We hypothesised that adolescents higher in trait aggression would be more sensitive to poor sleep. Method: Thirty-four adolescent females spent one night in the Flinders University Sleep & Psychology Lab. Sleep duration was assessed using a consumer-grade sleep-tracking wearable, and sleep quality was self-reported. The following morning, participants underwent a noxious aggression provocation paradigm, after which behavioural aggression was assessed using a modified Hot Sauce Paradigm, via the weight of allocated wasabi paste. Trait aggression was measured using the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ). Results: Sleep duration significantly moderated the relationship between trait aggression and aggressive behaviour, with shorter sleep predicting greater aggression among those higher in trait aggression (R2change = .11, p = .03). No such moderating effect was found for self-reported sleep quality. Discussion: These findings suggest that adolescents high in trait aggression may be particularly susceptible to the behavioural consequences of shorter sleep. Ensuring adequate sleep could therefore be especially important for reducing aggression in this subgroup. This study extends prior work by demonstrating the moderating role of objectively-measured sleep duration on aggression using a
Keywords: adolescents, Aggression, controlled design, sleep duration, sleep quality
Received: 15 Sep 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Denison, Gradisar, Paterson and Bauducco. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Serena Valeria Bauducco
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