Bidirectional Associations Between Loneliness, Emotional Support, and Sleep in Daily Life

Abstract

Objective Evidence suggests a link between positive social relationship perceptions and improved sleep (e.g., quality, efficiency) across the lifespan. Less work has probed the directionality of these relationships. Here, we report findings from the first study to examine bidirectional between- and within- person associations between loneliness and emotional support with daily life measures of sleep. Methods Participants were 389 healthy adults aged 40-64 (61% female) who completed hourly surveys assessing loneliness and perceptions of emotional support over the course of four days. Measures of actigraphy-assessed sleep and nightly sleep quality were also assessed over seven to ten days. Results Individuals with lower average daily loneliness showed higher sleep quality and efficiency than individuals with higher loneliness (r = -0.19, p < .001; r = -0.14, p = .008, respectively), and greater average emotional support was likewise linked with better sleep quality (r = 0.18, p < .001). Controlling for neuroticism attenuated the effects of average loneliness on sleep. Within-person analyses showed unexpected bidirectional effects. Specifically, days in which people felt relatively lonelier were followed by nights with greater sleep efficiency (γ = 1.08, p = .015), and nights when people reported relatively poorer sleep quality were followed by days with greater emotional support (γ = - 0.04, p = .013). These unexpected findings are probed in exploratory analyses. Conclusions Individuals with higher loneliness and lower emotional support report poorer sleep quality and efficiency, on average. Day-to-day fluctuations in perceptions of social relationships may affect the following night’s sleep, and vice versa.

Exploring the Interplay Between Stress, Sleep, and Health: A Special Issue Commemorating the Contributions of Dr. Martica Hall

“…These articles cover a wide range of topics, methodologies, and populations that collectively demonstrate the widespread impact of stress and sleep on health. We believe Tica would have been pleased to see a single issue addressing topics as diverse as the impact of sleep on cardiovascular health in physicians experiencing burnout (1); the role of biobehavioral rhythm stability in predicting the metabolic syndrome (2); dyadic sleep influences on posttraumatic symptoms among cancer patients and their caregivers (3); and prospective, often bidirectional associations between sleep and psychosocial factors (4–6) and mental health (7,8). Several articles also highlight the dynamic nature of sleep during critical periods across the life span (9) and multidimensional conceptualizations of sleep health (10), ideas and methodologies championed by Tica.…”