Feeling connected with others and experiencing positive interpersonal interactions is associated with physical health and psychological functioning. Despite the importance of social experiences, experimental studies investigating how sleep impacts social connections and positive social experiences are limited. The current study sought to examine how sleep loss impacted social motivation and emotions. Healthy emerging adults (N=53; 83% female, ages 18-28 years) were randomly assigned to one night of sleep restriction (4h time in bed) or typical sleep (8h time in bed). Following the experimental night, participants reported on their desire to pursue social connections, and completed a reflection task where they wrote about something generous someone did for them. After the reflection, participants reported on their positive and negative social emotions (gratitude, connectedness, guilt, indebtedness). Coding of the reflections was conducted to extract emotional tone and social words used. Sleep restricted participants reported reduced motivation to pursue social connections, and less gratitude and feelings of connectedness after the reflection compared to the control condition. Sleep restricted participants also used fewer socially-oriented words (i.e., words focused on other people) when reflecting on this interpersonal event. No differences emerged in guilt or indebtedness or emotional tone of the reflection. Findings suggest that sleep loss may decrease desire to engage in social interactions and reduces positive social emotions. These findings expand the limited body of research on sleep and social functioning by examining the impact of partial sleep restriction on social motivation, and on the experience of social emotions within a positive interpersonal context.

Studies in adults suggest that sleep disturbances predict poorer socioemotional skills and impaired social interactions. However, little is known regarding how sleep problems are associated with social processes during adolescence, a period when both sleep neurobiology and social relationships are undergoing dramatic developmental changes. The current study examined associations among sleep disturbances and peer connectedness among a sample of middle-school students (N = 213, 11-15 years old, 57% female) using a social network approach.Findings suggested that youth with greater sleep disturbances reported having fewer friends, fewer peers rated them as friends, and were less likely to have reciprocated friendships, even after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and mental health symptoms.

Introduction Sleep disturbances have been associated with emotion regulation difficulties, which in turn predicts the onset and maintenance of mental health disorders. However, research has primarily focused on the regulation of negative emotions. Associations between sleep and positive emotion regulation strategies are unknown. The current research examined relationships between subjective sleep disturbances (Study 1 and Study 2), objective sleep (Study 2), and positive emotion regulation strategies, including strategies that enhance or maintain positive emotions (i.e., savoring) and strategies that reduce positive emotion (i.e., dampening). Methods In Study 1, participants (N = 388, ages 18–64 years, 65% female) completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Responses to Positive Affect questionnaire to assess their positive emotion regulation strategy use, which consists of three subscales (emotion-focused savoring, self-focused savoring, and dampening). Participants in Study 2 (N = 59, ages 18–30 years, 84% female) completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Responses to Positive Affect questionnaire, and wore an actigraph for one week. Results In Study 1, greater subjective sleep disturbances were associated with increased dampening (β = .45, B = .45, SE = .05, 95% C.I. = .35, .55, p <.001), less emotion-focused savoring (β = -.16, B = -.10, SE = .03, 95% C.I. = -.16, -.04, p <.005) and less self-focused savoring (β = -.16, B = -.08, SE = .03, 95% C.I. = -.13, -.03, p < .05). In Study 2, subjective sleep disturbances were associated with greater dampening (β = .31, B = .70, SE = .32, 95% C.I. = .07, 1.34, p < .05), and marginally less self-focused savoring (β = -.28, B = -.82, SE = .42, 95% C.I. = -1.67, .02, p = .05). Actigraphy-measured sleep was unrelated to positive emotion regulation. All models adjusted for adjusted for age and gender. Conclusion Subjective sleep disturbances are associated with positive emotion regulation strategies, particularly strategies that dampen positive emotional experiences. These findings complement prior associations among sleep and the dysregulation of negative emotions, and suggest that sleep-related positive emotion dysregulation may be one mechanism by which sleep can lead to the development of emotional disorders. Support (if any):

Introduction Feeling socially connected with others is essential for promoting and maintaining psychological health. Emerging research suggests that insufficient sleep may result in deleterious social outcomes such as greater reactivity to stressful social situations. However, little is known regarding how sleep may impact motivation to feel connected with others, and experiences of connectedness after positive social interactions. Methods Healthy participants (N = 56; 83.9% female, ages 18–30) were randomly assigned to one night of sleep restriction (SR, 4 h) or a night of typical sleep (TS, 8 h) in a controlled laboratory setting and verified with actigraphy. All participants did not have any known or suspected sleep or psychiatric disorders, were free of medical conditions and current medication use known to impact sleep and/or psychological functioning, and wore an actigraph for one week prior to the experimental night to ensure adequate sleep duration. Following the experimental night, participants reported on their motivation for social connectedness (e.g., “Right now, I would like to be close with friends, family, and significant others.”), and completed a task where they spent 5 minutes writing about a positive interpersonal event. After the task, participants reported on their feelings of interpersonal connectedness. Qualitative text analysis was conducted to extract emotional tone and number of social words used during the task. Results Compared to TS, participants undergoing SR were less motivated to feel connected with others [t(54) = -2.62, p = .01], and reported feeling less social connectedness after the task [t(53) = -2.06, p = .04]. Text analysis revealed no differences in positive or negative emotional tone, but participants in the SR group used less social words when describing their positive interpersonal event [F(1, 53) = 6.65, p = .01], even after adjusting for differences in total number of words used. Conclusion One night of sleep restriction reduces motivation to engage in social interactions, and also results in feeling less connected with others after reflecting on a positive social event. These findings add to a limited body of research on sleep and social experiences and provide further support for the negative psychological effects of sleep loss. Support (if any):

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