UC Berkeley

Objectives: A link between sleep and emotion is well established. One prominent aspect of sleep and circadian functioning among youth is an evening circadian preference (ECP). Although under researched, the extant evidence raises the possibility that the relationship between sleep and emotion may be particularly prominent among ECP youth. As both sleep and emotion vary day-to-day and person-to-person, the present study examined the between- and within-person relationship between sleep and emotion in a sample of adolescents with an ECP.

Methods: For one week, 174 adolescents with an ECP (Mage =14.77±1.82) wore an actigraph and completed a sleep diary to assess sleep. They rated emotions using ecological momentary assessment. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling, controlling for age, sex, weekday/weekend, previous nights’ sleep, and previous days’ emotion.

Results: At the between-person level, higher negative emotion predicted a later bedtime, later sleep onset, and a shorter total sleep time (TST), which predicted higher next-day negative emotion. At the within-person level, higher-than-usual positive emotion predicted a later sleep onset, which predicted higher next-day positive emotion, while higher-than-usual negative emotion predicted a shorter TST. Sleep onset predicted higher next-day boredom at the between-person level, but lower next-day boredom at the within-person level.

Conclusions: A reciprocal, mutually maintaining relationship between sleep and emotion was observed at both the between- and within-person level. As sleep and emotion are linked through increased arousal and decreased neural connectivity, future interventions should target both positive and negative emotions as well as arousal before sleep to support overall well-being.