Disorders of Sleep and Aggression Trait in Women Associated: What Underlies Staying “Woke”?

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder where the patient falls asleep unwillingly. It is thought to be related to hyper functioning central sleep centers in the brain. Sleep apnea is a disorder of breathing disruption during sleep. Genes of the dopamine system have been implicated with high dopamine: norepinephrine ratio. Since dopamine has also been associated with personality traits, the hypothesis we studied herein was that patients with narcolepsy and sleep apnea would score low in catecholamine settings causing aggression trait. We found that narcolepsy and sleep apnea diagnoses showed significantly lower aggression trait using an online test. The conclusion is that narcolepsy and sleep apnea patients are not aggressive in personality, and since aggressiveness is related to sympathetic nervous system activity, this would be predictable given the role of sympathetic nervous system in wakefulness.