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Wen, Jin-Hui

University of British Columbia

Abundant evidence has demonstrated a reciprocal relationship between sleep and daily stress, yet it remains unclear how sleep affects daily stress processes. Research taking a more daily processes-oriented approach could further elucidate our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the relationship between sleep and daily stress. Moreover, accumulating research suggests that people differ from one another in the extent to which sleep is related to next-day stressful experiences. Therefore, this dissertation focused on elucidating the link between sleep and daily stress processes as well as examine individual differences that influence this relationship. Chapter 2 highlighted the influence of sleep on morning expectations of encountering a potential future stressor, and the role of trait Neuroticism in moderating this relationship. Poorer nightly sleep was associated with greater next-day stressor expectations; this relationship was more pronounced with higher levels of Neuroticism. Chapter 3 explored the role of sleep on next-day stressor exposure within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that the pandemic was characterized by major stress and uncertainty around the world, Chapter 3 further examined how individual differences in state appraisals of COVID-19 threat moderates the sleep-stressor exposure link. Results suggested that better and longer sleep was related to lower next-day stressor exposure; however, this link was blunted by higher levels of COVID-19 threat appraisals. Chapter 4 took a mechanistic approach by examining how reactivity to daily stressful events affects subsequent sleep. Specifically, the study examined pre-sleep arousal as a potential pathway linking daily stress reactivity to poorer subsequent sleep. Interestingly, affective pre-sleep arousal, but not physiological pre-sleep arousal, fully mediated the link between affective reactivity and poorer subsequent sleep. Collectively, these series of studies shed light on the associations of nightly sleep with daily stressful experiences and how these experiences, in turn, relate to subsequent sleep. Knowledge from this dissertation sheds light on mechanisms—such as morning expectations, affective reactivity to stressors, and bedtime emotions—as pathways underlying the links between sleep and stress.

Text

2024-09-03

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89150

Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/