More Is Not Always Better: Moderation of Adjusting Affective Style in Daily Association between Sleep Duration and Subsequent Affection
Affection is intertwined with sleep, yet how to adjust sleep duration to enhance subsequent affection remains unknown. Adjusting affective style, reflecting inter-individual differences in emotion regulation, was found to function in processes where sleep modulates our affective brain. Hence, this study examined whether and how it moderates the association between sleep duration and subsequent affection. An ambulatory assessment design was employed among 64 participants, wherein both within-person sleep duration and affects and between-person affective styles were measured. Multilevel moderation analysis and simple-slope analysis were applied to test our hypotheses. Results showed that adjusting affective style moderated the sleep-affection association. Specifically, sleep duration was positively associated with subsequent positive affects under higher adjusting affective style, whereas an opposite pattern was observed under lower adjusting affective style. However, such moderation wasn’t observed in associations between negative affection and sleep duration. This study uncovers the relationship between affection and sleep sufficiency. Specifically, longer sleep duration is a double-edged sword to positive affection, wherein the likelihood for individuals to benefit or suffer from it might count on their ability of emotion regulation. Additionally, negative affection cannot be improved simply by sleeping.