Daily Social Contact in Relation to Sleep: The Role of Age
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Published on: October 20, 2023
Caitlan A Tighe1, Natalie D Dautovich1, Christina S McCrae2
1a Department of Psychology University of Alabama , USA.
Objectives:
To examine how social contact during daily activities differs by age and relates to sleep outcomes.
Methods:
Fifty younger (M = 19.9 years, SD = 2.76) and 48 older (M = 67.6 years, SD = 6.63), community-dwelling adults completed the Social Rhythm Metric-17 and daily sleep diary online for 14 days.
Results:
Younger adults completed a greater proportion of activities with active others than older adults. Age significantly interacted with the proportion of activities completed alone, β = -.77, p = .04. Alone activities negatively predicted total sleep time in older, not younger adults.
Discussion:
Social contact, or lack thereof, is important for sleep, particularly for older adults who may be more prone to aloneness due to life course events.
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