A bench-to-bedside narrative review of the sleep-social-oxytocin nexus

Abstract

Although recognition of the significant reciprocal interplay between sleep and social processes has grown over the past two decades, theoretical frameworks conceptualising this interplay have predominantly focused on psychosocial factors. The current lack of attention to putative neurobiological substrates and physiological mechanisms that may facilitate the dynamics of sleep-social relationships limits interdisciplinary research into sleep and clinical treatment of sleep problems and disorders. Thus, this narrative review hypothesises that the neuropeptide oxytocin represents a promising candidate physiological substrate underpinning sleep-social interplay, and integrates the endogenous oxytocin system into a novel tripartite biopsychosocial framework—the sleep-social-oxytocin nexus.

The current narrative review outlines the theoretical rationale for the existence of reciprocal sleep-social-oxytocin interactions, and examines the clinical and preclinical evidence for interactions between sleep processes, social processes, and the oxytocin system, highlighting the paucity of experimental research that addresses all three nexus factors. Subsequently, we explore important clinical implications of the sleep-social-oxytocin nexus: comorbidities between sleep, social, and oxytocinergic dysfunction in sleep and other psychiatric disorders, the emerging therapeutic potential of oxytocin-based therapeutics, and potential adjunctive interventions to achieve optimal treatment outcomes. We conclude by proposing future avenues for research and clinical implementation warranted within this space.