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Daily stress affects sleep, causes more stress
According to a new research, daily stressors might be among the reasons why you are unable to sleep well. Lack of sleep will worsen your sleep the next day, creating a vicious cycle that can affect individuals and their families.
The findings come from two separate studies, both carried out by researchers in the Department of Biobehavioral Health (BBH) at Penn State.
In the first study, which was published online in the recent issue of Journal of Sleep Research, the team gathered information from 1,600 daily interviews with 102 mid-life employees in the IT industry.
The team found that daily psycho-social stressors such as stressful events and situations, tensions at work, school or home, unable to spend enough time with family; and personal life too had an impact on quality and quantity of night sleep. They were associated with interrupted sleep and a longer period of time before falling asleep. This shorter and lower-quality sleep also leads to more stressors the following day, with participants reporting higher work-to-family conflict than usual on the days following shorter and lower-quality sleep, as well as less time for themselves to exercise and less time for their children.
This in turn affects the next night’s sleep, with three stressors linked with a longer time to fall asleep that night. In the second study, published in Annals of Behavioral Medicine, the team analysed 1,900 daily interviews of employees in IT and extended care industries. It also found that quality sleep was linked to improved emotions, more positive events and experiences, less conflicts and fewer stressors on the following day.
Commenting on the significance of the findings, Orfeu Buxton, senior author of the two studies, said, “Sleep plays a central role in our daily lives. A day with less stress is followed by a night, where it’s easier to sleep. Having a sound sleep at night is more likely to be followed by a workday with less stress and conflict. In this case, sleep is a powerful source of resilience in difficult times.”