Naturalistic Fluctuations In Night-to-night Sleep Duration And Quality And Their Associations With Next Day Perceived Stress And Negative Mood

Abstract

68% of Americans experience poor sleep hindering daily functioning, yet sleep fluctuates from night-to-night within the same person. Implications of these fluctuations remain unknown. PURPOSE: We examine associations between last night’s sleep and next-day perceived stress/negative mood in a naturalistic setting and how depression moderates these relationships. METHODS: 167 individuals (136 women, 29 men, 2 other gender) completed a 21-day daily diary assessment. Using multilevel modeling, we tested within-person associations between last night’s sleep and next day’s perceived stress and negative mood. Using within-person multilevel mediation, we tested how insufficiently long and low-quality sleep impact next day’s negative mood via perceived stress and the moderating role of clinically-relevant levels of depression. RESULTS: Perceived stress (b = -0.01, p = 0.04) and negative mood (b = -0.05, p = 0.04) were lower following nights of longer sleep. The association between night’s sleep quality and perceived stress (b = -0.01, p = 0.04) and negative mood (b = -0.01, p = 0.001) were moderated by depression. In those experiencing depression, better night’s sleep quality related to lower next-day perceived stress (b = -0.02, p = 0.001) and negative mood (b = -0.01, p < 0.001). Mediation analyses indicated last night’s sleep impacts negative affect via perceived stress while controlling for physical activity: perceived stress (b = -0.01, p = 0.03) and negative mood (b = -0.01, p = 0.04) were lower when engaging in more physical activity. CONCLUSION: Within-person fluctuations in sleep impacted next-day perceived stress/negative mood. The daily functioning of for those with depression was sensitive to naturalistic fluctuations in sleep occurring suggesting that sleep may be an important target for interventions reducing stress and negative mood in depression. Funding: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, ISI Foundation, Paul Allen Foundation, Army Research Office (Grafton-W911NF-16-1-0474), National Institute on Drug Abuse (1K01DA047417-01A1), and HopeLab. D.M.L. and D.S.B. acknowledge support from the Army Research Office (W911NF-18-1-0244). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of any of the funding agencies.