Understanding poor sleep in emerging adulthood: the role of pre-sleep cognitive processes in daily life

Theoretical perspectives suggest that pre-sleep cognitive processes, including cognitive arousal, rumination, and stress can impair sleep. However, previous studies have relied on cross-sectional designs, limiting insight into how these cognitive processes relate to sleep on a night-to-night basis. In addition, anticipatory stress has received little empirical attention, despite its relevance for poor sleep. To address these gaps, the present study examined the associations of pre-sleep cognitive arousal, pre-sleep rumination, and anticipatory stress with sleep quality, sleep duration, and sleep onset latency both when averaged across 7 days (between-person level) and on a day-to-day basis (within-person level).

A total of 166 emerging adults (M_age  = 20.36 years, 80.1% female) completed smartphone-based surveys during 7 consecutive days, reporting on pre-sleep cognitive processes (cognitive arousal, rumination, anticipatory stress) each evening and sleep outcomes each morning.

Linear mixed-effects models showed that, at the between-person level, higher average levels of all three pre-sleep cognitive processes across the week were associated with poorer sleep quality and shorter sleep duration. No significant associations were found for sleep onset latency. At the within-person level, all three pre-sleep cognitive processes were not related to next-morning sleep outcomes.

Overall, the findings suggest that stable individual differences in pre-sleep cognitive processes, rather than short-term changes, are linked to sleep quality and duration in emerging adults.