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Human sleep has evolved from being more communal to solitary in nature.

Meta-analyses have found a correlation between loneliness and sleep difficulties.

Sleep may be considered among the interventions for loneliness.

A 2025 report by the World Health Organization defined loneliness as “a negative, subjective emotional state resulting from a discrepancy between one’s desired and actual experiences of connection."

Yet a definition doesn’t necessarily help with making sense of it, as Nobel (2023) noted. He viewed loneliness as a “natural biological signal,” akin to thirst or hunger or a flashing light on a mental dashboard signaling a problem.

The sleep light may be simultaneously blinking. In a meta-analysis of 27 articles, Griffin et al. (2020) found an association between loneliness and sleep disturbance, defined as “insomnia symptoms and subjective sleep quality.”

Another meta-analysis of 84 articles found a significant medium correlation between loneliness and sleep difficulties as well as loneliness and certain sleep complaints, such as poor sleep efficiency and loneliness (Hom et al., 2020). In their review of the literature, the authors discussed the idea that poor sleep may be attributed to hypervigilance to social........

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