Examining the Reciprocal Association Between Worry and Sleep: Disaggregating Between- and Within-Person Effects

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Sleep Science
• Behavioral Medicine

Background:

• Previous research on the link between worry and sleep shows inconsistent results.
• Methodological limitations in prior studies hinder a clear understanding of this relationship.
• A need exists to explore the bidirectional association between worry and sleep indices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the reciprocal association between worry and sleep onset latency (SOL), total sleep duration (TSD), sleep quality (SQ), and morning lingering (ML).
• To differentiate between person-level and day-level effects in the worry-sleep relationship.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal daily assessment study with 182 participants over 7 days.
• Participants completed a sleep diary and a measure of worrisome thinking three times daily.
• Linear mixed effects models and Tobit regression models were used, controlling for prior day outcomes and person/day effects.

Main Results:

• Higher trait-level worry predicted longer SOL, worse SQ, and increased ML.
• Higher person-level SOL, TSD, and ML were associated with increased worry; higher person-level SQ with decreased worry.
• Shorter day-level TSD and lower day-level SQ predicted greater next-day worry.

Conclusions:

• A reciprocal relationship exists at the person-level between worry and most sleep indices (SOL, SQ, ML), but not TSD.
• Sleep duration and quality at the day-level predict subsequent worry, indicating a unidirectional influence.
• Findings underscore the complex, bidirectional interplay between chronic worry and daily sleep patterns.