People react better to both negative and positive events with more sleep

New research finds that after a night of shorter sleep, people react more emotionally to stressful events the next day and also don't experience as much joy from positive events the next day. The study, recently published in the academic journal Health Psychology analysed daily diary data from a national U.S. sample of almost 2,000 people, from the largest daily diary study of health and well-being in the United States, the National Study of Daily Experiences, which included assessments of sleep duration. The participants reported their experiences and the amount of sleep they had the previous night in daily telephone interviews over eight days. The researchers from the University of British Columbia and Penn State University statistically analysed the relationship between sleep duration and how people responded to negative and positive situations the next day. 

Participants reported several stressful events in their daily lives, including arguments, social tensions, work and family stress, and being discriminated against. The main findings of the study were that longer prior night sleep duration buffered against declines in positive affect on days with these stressors, in addition to enhancing positive affective responsiveness to daily positive events. In other words, when people slept less than usual, they responded to these stressful events with a greater loss of positive emotions. 

Statistically, there was a greater loss in positive affect on stressor days when an individual slept 1 hour less than their usual sleep duration (simple slope: Est. = -0.17, SE = 0.01, p < .001) compared to when they slept 1 hour more than usual (simple slope: Est. = -0.10, SE = 0.01, p < .001).

Our take at StriveStronger: This study highlights something we all may experience in that after a poor night’s sleep (especially loss of 1 hour of sleep), we tend to be more reactive to stressful satiations. However, the study highlights that we also may not feel as much joy from positive life events on such occasions. Findings have important health implications as previous research shows that being unable to maintain positive emotions in the face of stress puts us at risk of more inflammation, higher risk of getting chronic diseases (e.g. heart disease, diabetes) and even earlier death. This study also shows the bidirectional relationship between sleep and chronic diseases with participants with chronic health conditions who slept longer than usual on occasions, had even better responses to positive experiences on the following day. 

So if you have an occasion you are looking forward to, such as a birthday or even your wedding, and especially if you have any chronic diseases, make sure you preserve your sleep on the preceding nights not just to help buffer any unanticipated stress but also ensure you enhance the joy you experience from such an occasion. 

Sin, NL, Wen, JH, Klaiber, P, Buxton, OM, Almeida, DM. (2020). Sleep duration and affective reactivity to stressors and positive events in daily life. Health Psychology, DOI: 10.1037/hea0001033