Abstract
This article provides a narrative review of what is known about romantic love and sleep variations and provides possible explanations for the association. Romantic love and sleep are described using a comprehensive, unifying framework advocated by Tinbergen. We summarise the findings of studies investigating the relationship between romantic love and sleep. Sleep variations are associated with romantic love in adolescents and young adults. We then detail some proximate mechanisms that may contribute to sleep variations in people experiencing romantic love before considering potential evolutionary functions of sleep variations in people experiencing romantic love. The relationship between symptoms of psychopathology and sleep variations in people experiencing romantic love is described. With the current state of knowledge, it is not possible to determine whether sleep variations associated with romantic love are adaptations or by-products of romantic love. We conclude by proposing areas for future research.
Highlights
Romantic love is commonly associated with a change in behaviour during both day and night including variation in a range of sleep measures
We argue that, with the current state of knowledge, it is not possible to determine whether sleep variations associated with romantic love are adaptations or by-products of romantic love
This article reviewed what is known about romantic love in relation to sleep and provided possible explanations for the association
Summary
Romantic love is commonly associated with a change in behaviour during both day and night including variation in a range of sleep measures. We describe romantic love and sleep using a comprehensive, unifying framework advocated by the Dutch biologist, Nikolaas Tinbergen [1]. This is a framework used to investigate a biological trait using the full spectrum of approaches found in biology. We detail some mechanisms that may contribute to sleep variations in people experiencing romantic love. We consider the role of testosterone, serotonin, dopamine and its activity in the mesolimbic pathway, oxytocin, cortisol, nerve growth factor, bed-sharing, and elevated mood in sleep variations in people experiencing romantic love. We consider potential evolutionary functions of sleep variations in people experiencing romantic love.
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