Abstract
Introduction
Sleep and affect are closely related. Late adolescence and emerging adulthood are associated with unique sleep patterns and risk for mood disturbances. This daily study examined whether dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep (DBAS), a modifiable cognitive vulnerability factor, moderated daily sleep-affect associations.
Methods
421 community adolescents (n=205, 54.1% females, M±SDage=16.9±0.87) and emerging adults (n=216, 73.1% females, M±SDage=21.31±1.73) self-reported sleep and affect (adapted 12-item PANAS) and wore an actigraphy device for 7–28 days, providing >5000 daily observations. Linear mixed models tested whether DBAS moderated daily associations between self-reported and actigraphic sleep duration (total sleep time), sleep efficiency, and next-day affect on between and within-person levels. Both valence (positive/negative) and arousal (high/low) dimensions of affect were examined. Covariates included age, gender, ethnicity, day of week, and previous-day affect.
Results
DBAS significantly moderated associations between average sleep and next-day positive, but not negative, affect. Individuals with higher DBAS had significantly lower high arousal positive affect as average sleep duration (actigraphic: p=.002; self-reported: p=.014) and efficiency (actigraphic: p=.014) decreased. Similar moderation was found for average self-reported sleep duration and low arousal positive affect (p=.032). No significant results emerged on the within-person level. Previous-day affect significantly predicted next-day affect across models and outcomes (all p<.001).
Discussion
Adolescents and emerging adults with more negative views about sleep may experience dampened positive affect in shorter, or poorer, sleep periods. DBAS may constitute a modifiable factor increasing affective vulnerability on a global but not day-to-day level, and a therapeutic target for sleep-related affect disturbances in youths.
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