From sleeplessness to solitude: emotional repair as a buffer between insomnia and loneliness in university students

Loneliness and insomnia are endemic in college students, and emotion regulation is strongly related to both. Starting with a biopsychosocial framework, the present study tested a model in which emotional repair mediated the relationship between loneliness and insomnia, with the goal of using a potential mechanism of action to address loneliness. Participants were undergraduate students (N=1,513) in the United States who completed a survey including the Trait Meta-Mood Scale, Sleep Condition Indicator, and UCLA Loneliness Scale, amongst other measures. Insomnia had a significant total negative effect on loneliness, B = -0.46, 95% CI [-0.54, -0.39]. Emotional repair partially mediated this relationship, with an indirect effect of B = 0.015, 95% CI [-0.19, -0.12]. Participants with better sleep were more able to regulate their emotions, and thus tended to experience lower levels of loneliness. Treating insomnia (e.g., CBT-I) or skills associated with emotional repair and regulation (e.g., transdiagnostic approaches to emotion regulation) could reduce overall loneliness.