Browsing by Author "Launis, Kaisa"

Aims. Human sleep is influenced by several biological and environmental factors. Furthermore, day-time experiences and emotion-related processes are likely to impact the subsequent sleep. However, it has been suggested that emotions may not have a direct impact on the quality or duration of sleep, but emotion regulation may have a noteworthy part in between. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of cognitive emotion regulation strategies on objectively measured sleep in adolescents. Ten distinct cognitive emotion regulation strategies and their association on sleep duration, sleep quality, regularity, and the timing of sleep phase was examined. The possible links between theoretically adaptive and maladaptive strategies and sleep were investigated as well. Methods. Sleep and cognitive emotion regulation strategies of 329 adolescents (67.1% girls, age M=17.47) were measured in SleepHelsinki!, a University of Helsinki –based research project. Sleep was measured objectively with actigraphy. Regression analyses were performed between distinct emotion regulation strategies and sleep outcomes, and between two composite variables (adaptive and maladaptive strategies) and sleep outcomes. Results and Conclusions. The average sleep duration of adolescents was 6.55 hours on weekdays and 7.41 hours on weekends, which is considerably less that the recommended 8-10 hours. A clear link between emotion regulation strategies and the timing of the sleep phase was found. The overall use of adaptive strategies as well as the use of distinct adaptive strategies was related to an earlier midpoint of the sleep phase on weekdays. Furthermore, the more rumination and catastrophizing were used, the later the sleep midpoint occurred. However, the link between emotion regulation strategies and duration, quality and regularity of sleep remains elusive. The results obtained in the present study suggest that the usage of various emotion regulation strategies is connected to the timing of nighttime sleep, particularly on weekdays. Sufficient emotion regulation is likely necessary for good nighttime sleep, but the adaptivity of the strategy may depend on complex person-, situation- or emotion-related matters.